My Nightmare
by BW4eva
Summary: Lisa's moved on after the Red Eye flight. She's got a new love life, has a niece named Mandy by Cynthia, and a certain someone won't leave her mind. Will Jackson ever let her live her life in peace?
1. Chapter 1

**So this was AN actual dream I had, BUT these were not the characters in the dream. They were my actual friends. What happened to Lisa in this chapter, happened to me in the dream. Then I woke up.. WICKED scary.. Lol. Anyways, I am going to continue my other Red Eye fanfiction, but I just wanted to start this one off. I didn't want to forget what happened. Hope you all like it. :) Let me know what you think. **

* * *

I was just getting on with my life. Five years ago I heard that the man who turned my life around had died, but he was always there. I saw him in my dreams, I saw him on the streets, and I saw him in my house. At first I thought I was going crazy, but then I realized that it was just him haunting me.

Cynthia had given birth to a beautiful baby girl named Mandy. She even gave me the honor of being godmother. I was surprised considering she had sisters. Cynthia and I spent almost all of our time together since Mandy was born. Now that Mandy was four, she was way more fun to play with. We got to go to the park and run around. Mandy had the misfortune of having her fathers hair. Although, on her the blonde was amazing. Every other aspect of Mandy was Cynthia. Which was a miracle. George was not the best looking man in the world.

We were at the park running around playing tag when Cynthia called me over to her. "Yes?" I asked her.

"Why don't you and Zack come over for dinner on Christmas?" She smiled at me.

I smiled back. "You know I have dinner with my father Cynthia."

She groaned. "Go there first then come over to my house with Zack. I still haven't met him yet and you know I want to. You two have been together for a year now. Why haven't you let me meet him?"

I cleared my thoat and looked at the ground. "I just want it to be real. Sometimes it feels like it isn't."

She hugged me. "Aw, sweetie. It's alright. He's not going anywhere, if he was, he would have already. Trust me."

She was right. With all the emotional baggage I came with, he should be running for the hills. With the rape, and then _him_, I probably should be locked in a padded cell. But no, I'm here and I'm trying to get on with my life. Zack was the first guy I trust since _him_. At first, I didn't know if it was a trick, just like last time, but it turned out to be genuine. So I went with it. He turned out to be a good guy.

I looked at her and smiled. "I guess you're right." I looked over at Mandy who was swinging on the swings. "Look, I'll ask my dad if I can leave his house a little early on Christmas and go to your house." Oh god, I sounded like a twelve year who had to ask for permission. I just didn't want to hurt his feelings. I always spent Christmas with him.

"I am right, and okay. You just let me know by Wednesday. Mandy's father will be there." She said with a sparkle in her eye.

I gave her a stern look. "Cynthia."

"What? We're working things out."

I sighed as I let my head fall to the right side. "He cheated on you. You don't need that in your life, or Mandy's." I tried to make it sound as convincing as I could, but the truth was, she loved him so much. I just wanted her to be happy. I knew he made her happy, even when he did cheat on her.

She sat down on the bench and looked up at me. "I love him."

I nodded. Sitting down next to her I patted her knee. "I know you do." I looked into her eyes. "Just be careful. Please?"

"Of course. You know I will be."

Again I nodded and smiled. Finally I stood up and looked at Mandy. "Mandy! Come here."

"Coming auntie Lisa!" She yelled with the biggest smile on her face. "Yes?"

I kneeled down to her level. "I have to leave now. I'll see you tomorrow okay?"

"Aww, no!"

It was always like this with her. She hated it when I left. But I had to go home and get ready for work. I smiled and took her hands in mine. "I'll see you tomorrow." I smirked and scrunched my face up. "I might even have a surprise for you."

"Yay!" She jumped into my arms and gave me a huge hug and we both laughed.

* * *

When I finished work that night I went to my dad's house knowing he would still be awake watching comedies on tv. I knocked on the door and he answered within a minute. "Leese, what's wrong?"

I winced at the nickname. I had asked everyone to stop calling me that after the incident. "Dad, I thought I asked you to stop calling me that. Please just call me Lisa." I said as I put my hand on my head.

"Okay, I'm sorry honey. What's wrong?" He looked at me with concern in his eyes.

This was the problem with having an over-protective father. He always thought that something was wrong, or always asking me if I was okay. "Everything is fine. I promise. I just wanted to come see you."

He opened the door wider and ushered me in. The house was still as beautiful as ever. But I tried not to come here unless it was needed. The memory of what had happened was just to much. I closed my eyes as I walked past where he laid down dying on the floor. In the living room I sat down on the couch while my father sat down on his chair. "So dad, about Christmas-"

"Leese, if you wanna spend it with Zack, that's fine."

I gave him a stern look. "It's Lisa, remember? No more Leese, that nickname is dead." _Just like him. _I thought to myself. He nodded. "But, I do want to spend it with Zack. Just not all day. I want to come here first, then go to Cynthia's with him."

"When do I get to meet him? I am your father. I should have met him already."

I narrowed my eyes in thought. How had I had this relationship for so long without anyone meeting him? I met him at the hotel, so how had Cynthia not met him? I shook my head. "I wanted to make sure it was real first dad. I'll ask if he wants to come here soon."

We sat there watching the comedy marathon until late evening when I told him I had to leave.

* * *

When I woke up, I had a voicemail from Zack. He was telling me that he had to cancel our date tonight because he had an emergency meeting in Las Angeles. He said he would be back tomorrow. I sighed. I hadn't seen him in a week. I was beginning to miss him. I called him back.

"Hey babe."

"Hey."

"You got my voicemail?"

"Yea. I have a question for you."

I could hear him inhale sharply. "Yes?"

"Would you like to come with me to my fathers and my best friends house for Christmas? I mean, I know you probably have your own family traditions that you do, but I figured that I would ask because they want to meet you." I felt like a fool asking him.

He laughed slightly. I thought I heard someone else in the background laugh, and I thought I knew the laugh, but I shook my head. I was just hearing things. "Babe, that's fine. We can do both of those."

"You don't have to go to your family's house?" I asked confused. I guess I was secretly hoping he would say no.

"No, I haven't told you this yet, but all my family is dead or scattered all over the world. I don't want to be away from you this Christmas."

I smiled and stretched. "Okay baby. I'll see you- wait. When will I see you again?"

"I'll be home tomorrow, how about we go out tomorrow night?"

I threw the covers off of me and stood up. "Sounds good." I looked at the clock. "Baby, I gotta let you go. I promised Mandy I would see her today and bring her a surprise."

"You're bringing her a surprise when Christmas is in three days?"

I laughed. "She's my niece and god-daughter. Of course I am!" I said as I shook my head.

He laughed. "Alright baby. I love you."

That surprised me. He had never said that. I know I felt that way about him, but I didn't know he felt that way about me. "I love you too."

"Bye. See you tomorrow night."

I walked into the bathroom and stared into the mirror at my hair. It was a mess. It looked like I had tossed and turned from nightmares all night. "Yes. It's a date. Bye." I hung up before he could surprise me anymore than he already did.

* * *

Those three days went by fast. I had finished my Christmas shopping and wrapping all the gifts for everyone. Of course Mandy got more than any one else. But that was to be expected.

When we arrived at my fathers house, I parked outside and stared at the house until Zack touched my shoulder and I jumped. "You okay babe?"

I shook my head and smiled. "Yea. You ready?" I wasn't ready to tell him what had happened yet. I would eventually. It's just that right now wasn't a good time.

"Of course babe. I can't wait to meet your father." He said with a smile. I looked up at his red hair that complimented his blue eyes. I'll admit, it was a weird match, but on him it looked amazing. We got out of the car and he got out the presents for my father then took my hand in his. He stood almost a foot taller than me. I smiled up at him and he bent down and kissed me. For the first time in such a long time, I was happy.

We walked in and my father was busy cooking. I rolled my eyes and shook my head. Usually we just ordered out on Christmas. He was trying to make a good impression for Zack. "Dad, this is Zack. Zack, this my father Joe."

They shook hands and instantly began talking about sports while I walked out to the living room and put the presents under the tree. Where I noticed a couple for Mandy. My father had never bought any for her before, so that was weird. "Dad?" I hollered to him.

He walked into the living room. "Hmm?"

"You got gifts for Mandy?"

He smiled. "Yea, is that okay honey?"

I scratched my head. "Yea, that's fine. I was just confused. You never have before, so it was weird."

"Will Cynthia be alright with that?"

I cracked my knuckles. "Yea. She'll be fine with it. Trust me." I looked around the living room, feeling like someone was watching me, then I looked back at my dad. "Let's go eat."

Lunch went great. My father and Zach got along great. I don't why I didn't introduce them sooner. I smiled throughout the whole lunch. When it was time to go to Cynthia's my dad took me to the living room. "Are you happy?"

I narrowed my eyes at him. "Of course I am. Why wouldn't I be?"

He picked up the presents for Mandy and then one for Cynthia and handed them to me. "I don't know honey. I just wanted to make sure. You know I worry about you."

I lolled my head to the side and sighed as I rolled my eyes. "Dad, you really have to stop worrying about me. I'm fine. I'm happy for once. Can you just believe me?"

"Of course Lees- I mean, Lisa."

I hugged him and gave him a kiss on the cheek. We both walked out to Zack who was sitting at the kitchen table on the phone. "Yea, still on for tonight. Don't worry. I got this." He saw me then smiled. "I gotta go. My girlfriend just walked in. Yes, I'll talk to you later."

"Um, what's on for tonight? I thought we were going to Cynthia's."

He stood up and walked over to me rubbing both my arms with his hands. "We are honey. I just have to go out after that. I promised a friend I would help him with something tonight." I frowned. "What's wrong babe?"

"I kind of wanted to spend the night with you. It is Christmas after all."

He smiled. "As soon as I'm done with him, I'll come right back. I promise." I smiled.

* * *

When we got to Cynthia's house, we needed help carrying all of the presents in the house. Mandy came running out of the house and she jumped at me. "Woah! Hold on sweetie. I gotta bring these inside first." I laughed.

She ran back inside with the biggest smile on her face. I walked inside and saw George standing by the tree. Instead of being rude, I smiled a tight smile and nodded. "Hello George."

"Hey there Leese." He said with malice.

"It's just Lisa now. No one calls me Leese anymore." I said with a monotone voice.

Zack came up behind me. "Leese? Why did people stop calling you Leese?"

I looked at him. "That's a story for another day baby. It's not really appropriate for Christmas day talk."

"But baby, if you need to talk about it-"

"Not now. Please?" I pleaded with him. I just didn't want to talk about it. Not now, and probably not ever.

He nodded. "Sure baby. Whenever you're ready."

We walked out to the kitchen after dropping off the presents in the living room. When I got into the kitchen, I saw Cynthia's brother Ben sitting down at the table. "Oh my god. Are my eyes deceiving me or are you really here Ben?" Ben looked up from his plate of cookies and his eyes lit up. Ben was taller than Cynthia, had brown hair and blue eyes.

"Lisa? Lisa Reisert? I haven't seen you in ages! Where the hell have you been?"

I smiled. "I've been here since you left for college."

Zack came up behind me and hugged me tightly. I rested my head against his chest. "Who's this Lisa?" I looked up at Zack. He sounded a little jealouse and it was kind of cute. He never got that way. I smiled as I looked back at Ben.

"This is Cynthia's little brother Ben. Ben this is my boyfriend Zack."

Ben looked at me with a look of confusion. "Um, Leese, after what happened, I thought you would never have a boyfriend."

I closed my eyes. I didn't need the reminders. They were everywhere. But I didn't need people to keep reminding me. I bit the inside of my cheek then sighed. "Lisa. Just call me Lisa. I don't like being called Leese anymore. And, things change."

I opened my eyes to see him nodding and to see Cynthia come up behind him and smack him in the head. "What was that for?"

"That is not something we should be discussing today of all days. Besides, your niece wants you to push her on the swing." When he just sat there looking at her, she swatted her hand at him. "Go. She's waiting for you." He reluctantly got up and walked out to the backyard.

"I'm so sorry Lisa. I should have told him."

I put a hand up to stop her. "It's fine Cynthia. No big deal."

"I think it's a big deal, because I'm missing something here." Zack said.

I turned around to face him. "I'll tell you when I'm ready. I'm just not ready yet."

He nodded. "Okay. So this is the infamous Cynthia that I hear so much about?"

We sat down and had a glass of wine together while they talked and got to know each. I looked around and couldn't find George anywhere. My lips pursed. I looked at Cynthia and smiled. "Excuse me for a minute."

I walked back out to the living room where I found him sitting on the couch by himself watching tv. "Why are you not out there with us talking?"

He lifted his head in my direction and scoffed. "As if you really care. You hate me." I shook my to get rid of the thought of it. I did hate him, but I didn't want him excluded. Besides, I wanted Cynthia and Mandy to be happy.

I walked over to the couch and sat down next to him. "I do hate you. Only because you cheated on her. But, I want her to be happy. Apparently you make her happy." I looked at his face which was filled with guilt, or at least that's what it seemed. "So why don't you come out there and have a drink with us? You shouldn't be alone. This isn't about me. This is about you and Cynthia. If you make her happy, then I'm all for it."

I hated saying the words, but I had to. She was my best friend. I only wanted the best for her and Mandy. I just didn't think he was it. I was sure he was going to cheat on her again.

He sighed. "Fine. But, this doesn't mean we're friends."

My eyes opened wide. "No, of course not." Then we both laughed.

* * *

After dinner, I was sitting in the kitchen while everyone else was out in the living room opening gifts. I just wanted to sit by myself for a couple of minutes. I sat there drinking my wine with my eyes closed until I felt Mandy pull on my arm. "Auntie Lisa, let's play hide and seek!"

I smiled down at her. "Fine, but your it."

She shook her head. "No way, you're it. I wanna hide with uncle Zack and uncle Ben." _Did she really just call Zack uncle Zack? _I asked myself. Could I see myself getting married to him. _Oh my god, is he going to propose to me? _I asked myself. I steeled myself that, just incase it happened. I wasn't ready for that, and I didn't know how he would handle the rejection.

"Let's go see if everyone else wants to play first."

We walked out to the living room and they were all laughing and getting along so well, except Zack looked a little off. He was shaking a little. "Are you okay baby?"

He looked at me. "Yea, why?"

"You're shaking."

He shrugged. "Must be the wine."

I nodded. Then Mandy screamed out, "Let's play hide and seek!" I laughed as the rest of the adults agreed to play. "I wanna hide with uncle Zack first. Auntie Lisa is it."

I shrugged and shooed them all out of the room and started counting. I counted to a hundred then walked out to the kitchen looking around when Zack walked out with Mandy in his arms. I laughed. "What are you doing? I'm supposed to be looking for you. Not the other way around."

He shrugged. "Look under the table." So I did. I got down on my hands and knees and got under the table. He met me under the table with Mandy in his arms.

"What are you doing?" I asked him again.

"If you don't leave with me right now, I will kill her." He said in a low voice so that Mandy couldn't hear him.

I shook my head. I couldn't have possibly heard him right. "Excuse me?"

"You heard me."

I looked at Mandy and kissed her cheek. "Go hide with uncle Ben. I'll come find you in a couple of minutes." Tears were threatening to spill over, but I didn't want her to see that, so I sent her away. She ran off laughing. I looked at Zack. "You know we're leaving in about an hour, why would you say that?"

Before I knew what was happening, he grabbed my head and smashed it off the leg of the table.


	2. Chapter 2

**Sorry I haven't updated, I've been extremely sick, busy, and lots of other variables that didn't allow me online. :( I hope you all like this chapter. I have an idea about where I want this story to go, so I hope you all like it.**

**Pirate Gyrl- Thanks for the review... I thought that it was Los Angeles, but it didn't look right! I have those moments sometimes. Lol. Can't believe I made a mistake like that. GAH! Anyways, I hope you like this chapter.**

* * *

I woke up with tears silently streaming down my face and my breathing labored. I sat up quickly just to make sure that I was in my bedroom, and sure enough I was. I closed my eyes and placed my hand over my heart willing myself to calm down. It wasn't working. My tears started to flow even more, but they weren't silent anymore.

Zach sat up rubbing his eyes then looked at me. "Another bad dream baby?" He asked as he placed his hand on the small of my back, rubbing it trying to soothe me. I nodded as I bent over the side of the bed to my purse and carried it up to me. "You know what Dr. Ames said. He can't hurt you anymore. The only way to get rid of him is to stop thinking about what happened to you. You can't change it." I shook my head. He just didn't know that _he _wasn't the one in my dream this time.

I grabbed the pills that Dr. Ames had prescribed me to help me sleep out of my purse and I took two of them. "You just don't understand."

"You dreamt of Jackson again didn't you?" He asked me with a knowing look.

I gave him a pointed look of disgust. "Please, don't use that name-" I paused for a minute as I tried to calm down. When I finally did, I looked at the pill bottle in my hand. "Don't use that name in front of me again. Please?" I looked up at him. "And no. I didn't dream of him this time."

He furrowed his brow and gave me a confused look. "Then why are you taking those? You know you're only supposed to take them when you dream of him."

I was getting aggravated. He wasn't even letting me talk. He kept interupting me, and I was ready to just walk out of the room and sleep on the couch. I sighed and put the pills back in my purse. "Do you really wanna know what it was about?" I didn't really think he was going to like hearing what my dream was about, and I wasn't exactly sure I wanted to tell him.

He nodded and I sighed again. "The dream started with me hanging out with Cynthia and Mandy in the park. She asked if I wanted to go over her house for Christmas dinner with you, and I asked you. You said yes. But I also asked if you wanted to meet my father, and you said yes." I looked up at him. "Are you sure you want to hear the rest of this? It gets pretty bad."

"Babe, I want to know what bothered you so much."

I nodded and stared at my hands that I was wringing together. "Well, when we went to my fathers for Christmas, we were about to leave and I caught you on the phone with someone. You said 'Yea, still on for tonight. Don't worry. I got this.' I got worried because I thought you were going to leave me after my fathers' house, but you didn't. We went to Cynthia's house. After dinner, you were in the living room with everyone and I was in the kitchen thinking, that was when Mandy came in begging me to play hide and seek."

Before I could finish telling him about my dream, he interupted me again. "I'm not understanding why this dream made you upset. It sounds like a great dream to me."

I shook my head again. "I wasn't done telling you about it." He gave me a silent oh and I continued. "We ran in and we got everyone to play. Well, Mandy begged her uncle Zach to hide with her first. I counted and went looking for all of you, when all of a sudden, you came out of nowhere with Mandy in your arms telling me to look under the table. When I did, you told me to leave with you or else you would kill Mandy."

I started crying again and he tried to hug me, but I pushed him away. "No, I'm not done. I looked at you and I asked you why you would say something like that. I told you that we were leaving in an hour or so, and I kissed Mandy on the cheek and told her to go and hide with uncle Ben. After she left the kitchen, you grabbed my head and smashed it against the leg of the table. That's when I woke up."

This time when he pulled me in, I just let him. I let my emotions take over every fiber of my being. My body was shaking with every sob I had. "Baby, you know I would never hurt Mandy or you. You're my world. You mean everything to me. After everything it took for me to get with you, I wouldn't chance ruining it for anything in the world."

* * *

When I got out of the shower, there was knock on the bathroom door. I opened it and looked at Zack who was holding my cell phone. "What's wrong?"

"It's your dad."

"My dad? Why is dad calling now?" I grabbed my phone from him instantly and put it to my ear. My father never called before noon because he was usually up late watching his comedies. I looked at the clock on my sink and saw that it was only 7:30. "Dad?"

"Leese, why did you take so long to get to the phone?"

"It's Lisa. You know that nickname is dead."

There was a slight pause and then a click. "Okay, sorry. You need to come over here right away."

I was getting really frantic. Obviously something was wrong. Zach was staring at me with concern in his eyes. I shrugged my shoulders at him. "I'll be right there, but this means I'm going to be late for work." I hung up the phone and rushed out of the bathroom and ran over to the bed grabbing my purse. Then I ran to my closet as I picked out some heels.

"What's going on Lisa?"

I shook my head. "I don't know. He just said I need to get over there right away."

"I'm coming with you."

I turned to look at him. I put my hand on the back of his neck and stared into his eyes. "Babe, I love that you want to come with me, but I can't have that. I'm going right to work afterwards. I swear, if somethings wrong, I will let you know." I kissed him and ran out the door before he could stop me.

When I got to my father's house, I unlocked the door and ran inside. "Dad?" No answer. I screamed louder this time. "Dad?"

"I'm right here Leese. Why are you here?" He checked his watch. "You're supposed to be in work in fifteen minutes."

I looked at him with confusion. "You called me. You told me that I had to get here right away."

He shook his head at me. "I woke up the minute I heard you screaming for me."

If he wasn't the one who called me, then who was? I took out my phone and scrolled down to my recent calls list. There was my fathers number. "Dad, your phone called me fourty-five minutes ago."

I showed my father my phone and he glared at it. "Leese, I swear I didn't call you."

"Dad, you did too." I put my phone away and looked up at him. "And please, stop calling me Leese. How many times do I have to ask people to stop calling me that?" I asked in my frustration.

"I'm sorry sweetie. It's a habit, and it takes a while to break it. You know I've been calling you Leese for your whole life."

He was right. He had been calling me Leese my whole life. I was getting mad because that's what _he_ used to call me. I just didn't want to hear that name anymore. It was a sickening reminder of what I went through with _him._ I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. "I'm sorry dad. You're right. It's just after what happened, I don't like that nickname anymore. It reminds me of-"

"What happened? I know sweetheart. Dr. Ames said you have to over come it. The only way to do that, is to think about it and do the things that you did that night."

I softly laughed. "Dad, I gotta go to work. I'll talk to you later."

I ran away from him just like I did from Zach. I clearly realized that I never wanted to talk about what Dr. Ames wanted me to do or about _him_ but that was my right. Especially when it would just make me feel like a victim all over again. I didn't want to feel like that. I was a victim on the plane up until I stabbed him with that pen. Then I decided to move on from it, but no one would allow it.

* * *

On the drive to work, I did some thinking. Why should I allow Jackson to ruin my life? Yes, I allowed myself to think his name and say it. As long as no one else was around, it was allowed. It didn't matter. I was allowed to let my emotions that were attached to him flow freely when no else was around. When others were around, I kept it all bottled up. Only because, no one would understand how I felt about him. There was some underlying attraction and I couldn't figure it out. Especially after everything he did to me.

Why should he be allowed to ruin my life? Why should I be on pills that make me sleep so I don't have nightmares anymore. It just wasn't fair. Of course, life wasn't fair. Everyone was right. Dr. Ames had told me that I had to over come everything he had done to me. It just seemed impossible to get away from him. Or rather to get my thoughts away from him. Those icy-blue eyes, yes they were captivating. Even enticing. I shook my head trying to get rid of the image of him out of my head.

Finally I pulled into work and realized I was fifteen minutes late. I ran into the lobby and right over to the computer and logged in. Cynthia ran over to me. "Oh my god, Lisa. You are never late! What happened?"

I looked around the lobby and then looked back at her. "I got the strangest phone call this morning."

She grabbed my arm and dragged me over to the couch in the lobby. "How about I get us some coffee and we'll talk about it? It's slow today. Sit down and relax until I get back."

I sat there and waited until she got back with our coffee's. Which I was glad for. I hadn't had my normal cup before I left for work this morning.

"So, what happened?"

I shrugged. "I honestly don't know." She gave me a confused look. One that I had been getting a lot this morning. "It was from my father telling me that I had to get to his house right away. When I got there, nothing was wrong and he insisted that he never made the call."

"That can't be right." Cynthia took a sip of her coffee and I did the same thing.

I put my coffee down and bit my lip. "I know. That's what I thought too. But he swore up and down that it wasn't him. So I told him that I had to leave."

"Lisa, are you sure he didn't call you in his sleep?"

I hadn't thought of that. That was certainly a possibilty. "I didn't even think of that. It could have been that."

She nodded. "So, other than that, what's been going on?"

I raised my eyebrows. "I had a crazy dream last night. So bad it woke me up in the middle of the night, and I had to take two pills."

"Lisa, what did that bastard do to you in your dream this time?"

I chuckled. "Sad thing is, it wasn't him. It was Zach."

She looked shocked. "Zach? Your sweet loving Zach?"

I nodded and went into detail about the whole dream. When I was finished, I was crying again. Cynthia was hugging me trying to calm me down as guests who were leaving were staring at me. I looked at her and asked her how things were going for her. "Well, just like your dream, George and I are working it out and he is coming over for Christmas, do you want to come over with Zach?" I groaned. Would it be weird if I did what happened in my dream? "Lisa, it's just a dream. Nothing is going to happen." I nodded.

"You're right. I guess we can come over."

She gave me a little look before she continued on. "But I should say that Ben will be there."

I stared at her. "This is getting weird. That's definitely exactly like my dream."

"But it won't be like your dream. You know it won't be." She was right. I had to stop acting like this. Dreams didn't come true, well dreams that you had while you slept didn't come true. Right?

The phone rang and I stood up but Cynthia stopped me. "I'll get it. You just sit down." I nodded doing as she said. I was staring at her as she was staring at me. She put the phone in her hand and had sympathy in her eyes. "Lisa, it's for you. It's your father. He sounds like he's been crying."

I narrowed my eyes as I jumped up and ran to the phone. "Dad? What's wrong?"

"Leese, what took you so long to get to the phone?"

"It didn't take me long at all. I ran to the phone. And I told you to stop calling me Leese. Even though you said it would take you a while to get used to calling me Lisa, I would appreciate it if you would only call me Lisa from now on Dad."

"Okay, sorry. You need to come over here right away."

These were the exact same words that he said to me this morning. I looked around the lobby real quick then looked at Cynthia who had walked a little away from me. "Jackson?" I whispered into the phone.

The line went dead and I dropped the phone and stared at Cynthia. "What's wrong Lisa?"

"It's Jackson. He's back."

She ran over to me and hugged me. "Are you sure? What did he say to you?"

I shook my head violently. "Nothing. But that was a recording. I could tell. I said his name into the phone and the line went dead." I walked out of her embrace and stared into her eyes. "What am I supposed to do?"

Cynthia closed her eyes and shook her head. I narrowed my eyes. Was I going crazy? I know it wasn't Jackson's voice, but that was a recording. Cynthia opened her eyes and grabbed me by the shoulders. "I think you should leave and go see Dr. Ames. Maybe she can help sort this out."

I couldn't believe what she was saying to me. I shook my head and closed my eyes tightly to keep from crying. When I opened them, she was looking at me with worry. "You think I'm going crazy."

She tried to rub my arms, but I pulled out of her grasp and put my hands up in the air. "No, sweetie, I don't." She paused and took a step back because I think she could tell I was really mad at her. "The only thing I think, is that Jackson is dead. Remember? The cops told you so."

The cops had told me so, but who would use my fathers voice to torture me like that? Who would use my nickname like that, when I had specifically asked everyone else to not call me by it anymore? I turned my head to the door of the hotel. "You know what? I'll just call my dad. See if he called here." Cynthia nodded in response.

I picked up the phone and dialed my dad's phone number. I waited for him to answer. It rang and rang. After the fifth ring, it finally went to voicemail. Now I was worried. I slammed the phone down into the reciever. "Dammit!"

"What?"

I grabbed my purse, went to the computer and logged out, and started heading for the door. I looked back at Cynthia who was following me. "No one answered at my father's house. I'm going to make sure he's alright, then I'll be back." I didn't even hear if she said anything.

When I got into the car, my cellphone rang. I looked at it, and it was Zach. I didn't want to talk to him at the moment, but I realized that I hadn't called him to let him know that my father was alright the first time that I went over there. "Hello?"

"Baby, you never let me know-"

I cut him off before he could finish his whole sentence. I didn't have time for this. "I know babe, I got side-tracked. I'm sorry. I'm actually at work, and I'm leaving to head back to my dad's. He was fine the first time that I went there." I paused as I started pulling out of the parking garage.

"What do you mean the first time? Why are you going back there?"

I really wasn't even paying attention to what he was saying, but I knew the questions he was going to ask. "I got the same call that I got this morning at the hotel, and it's a recording. When I called my father to see if he was okay, there was no answer. I'm just going to see if he is okay. I'll let you know what happens. Love you." I hung up before he could talk me out of it. I knew he would try, it was what he did best.

After I told him what Jackson did to me, he was the one who got me to go to therapy. I was convinced that I didn't need it. Dr. Ames was convinced that I needed therapy more than anyone else she was seeing. She had prescribed me two presriptions. One to help me sleep at night when I was having trouble, or when I was having nightmares, and the other was for during the day when I couldn't stop thinking of Jackson. The pills would make me numb. It would make me stop thinking. Sometimes I welcomed the feeling of being numb, but others I didn't. I needed my mind sharp for work and for whenever I was around Mandy. I never really took the pills to be numb much.

Finally I pulled up to my dad's house and saw that my dad's car was there. That was strange. If the car was there, then he should have answered the phone. I sighed as I put the car into park. I walked into the house and walked into the living room where I saw it was trashed. It looked like there had been a struggle. I immediatly took out my cellphone and called Zach. He answered on the first right. "Baby, what's going on?"

"The living room is trashed! The couch is tipped over, the pictures are all on the floor and the-" I had stopped talking while I looked at the phone in confusion.

"The what?"

"The phone wire is pulled out of the wall." I said slowly. I walked out of the room slowly and into the kitchen looking around. One of the knifes was missing from the holder, and I looked in the sink. It was there, with blood on it. I screamed. I vaguely heard Zach frantically talking in my ear. Trying to get me to talk to him.

Finally I calmed down enough to hear him. "Baby, what is going on?"

I backed away from the sink and shook my head in dis-belief. This couldn't be happening. "There was a knife missing. I found it. It's in the sink, with blood on it."

I heard Zach gasp. "Get out of that house. Now. Call the police. I'll be right over."

I nodded. "Okay. I'll be waiting in the car." I hung up my phone and put it in my pocket, resolving to call the cops when I got safely in my car. It would take Zach half an hour to get here. My mouth was so dry. I couldn't believe this was happening. No. I wouldn't let it happen.

I turned around and saw Jackson standing in the doorway. I closed my eyes and shook my head. This had to be a dream. A nightmare really. I let out a long rush of air. I opened my eyes and he was standing directly in front of me. I gasped as he reached out and touched me. I closed my eyes again and tilted my head. That was when I took my hand and balled it into a fist and swung. It connected with his face and he was as surprised as I was. I started running, but this time, Jackson grabbed me. Which was a surprise to me. I had out-run him in the airport and in my dad's house, so I should have been able to this time. He took me by the arm and dragged me upstairs.

"So, I hear you've got yourself a little boyfriend Leese." I scoffed. I definitely was not getting into this with him. I wasn't even going to talk to him. I rolled my eyes. He pulled me into my old room. "So, how is Zach doing?" He was trying to get a rise out of me, and he wasn't going to do it. I wouldn't allow it. He pushed me down on my old bed, sitting down on top of me, pinning my hands above my head. I tried to break free, but it just wasn't working. "How is my good dog behaving himself?" That got my attention. I looked into Jackson's icy blue eyes with malice. What the hell was he talking about? Zach couldn't possibly be working with him. He just couldn't. "He earned your trust I see." He smirked. "I told him how to do it you know."

I turned my head away from him. Well, as far away as I could with me being pinned to the bed. If anyone knew how to gain my trust, it was Jackson. He had done it before. "I don't know what you're talking about." I said trying to make him think that he was wrong. "There's no boyfriend. No one named Zach in my life. I'm still alone. If you think I could even remotely think about trusting another soul in my life, you're sadly mistaken." I turned back to look at him. "By the way, where's my father?"

He smirked his stupid little smirk. "Oh, he's around. It doesn't matter anyways. When our ride arrives, we'll be leaving."

Again I scoffed. "I'm not going anywhere with you."

We sat there in silence for a couple of minutes which was really awkard. I tried to get free again, but it was completely futile. His grip was like steel. I couldn't get out of it. I turned my head away from his again. I was tired of looking at his eyes. They were so intimidating.

"Why don't you look at me Leese? Afraid you'll turn to stone?"

I closed my eyes. "Why don't you let me go, Jack? Cynthia is waiting for me at work, and If I don't call her or make it back, she's going to be worried."

He chuckled. I opened my eyes. "Oh don't worry. You'll be calling her. Just as soon as our ride gets here." He looked over at the clock on my nightstand.

"I'm not going to lie her. If I call her, I'm going to tell her that I'm with you."

I could see the anger flash in his eyes. His face always changed completely when he got angry. "You will call her. Or else your dad dies."

I shook my head and tears pricked my eyes. "I saw the knife in the sink. How do I know he isn't dead already?"

He shrugged. "You don't."

"Then I'm not doing it."

He smirked again. "Well then, if you don't do it, you're boyfriend Zach dies. He's been a good dog, but if he has to die, he has to die."

I rolled my head to the other side. I wasn't going to be baited, and I wasn't going to bring Zach into this. "I don't have a boyfriend. I've already told you this." Something wasn't adding up though. Why was he here? Yes, he had said we would talk again, but why hadn't he killed me yet? I turned my head to face him and looked at him with confusion. "Why haven't you killed me yet?"

He shook his head. "I'm not going to kill you. Just your boyfriend, maybe your dad, maybe Cynthia, and maybe Mandy if you don't co-operate." This got me really mad. I flung my arms up with all my strength and hit him in the face. I was surprised that I got my arms free. "Still as feisty as ever I see."

"You will not hurt Mandy or Cynthia, do you hear me?" I growled through my clenched teeth as I continued to hit him in the face and chest. For some reason, he allowed it and that confused me further. I immediately stopped and he laughed. "Why didn't you stop me from hitting you?"

He smirked. "I thought you needed to let out a little frustration." He grabbed my wrists and pinned them above my head again. I tried to free them again, but again I couldn't. "I noticed that you didn't say I couldn't hurt your boyfriend or your dad."

I sighed. "For the last time, I don't have a boyfriend." I screamed. At that exact moment, Zach walked through the door and he looked really pissed off. I didn't know if it was at me or if it was because Jackson had me pinned to the bed.

"What the hell is going on here? I told you to go wait in the car. Who is this guy?"

Great, he thought I was cheating on him? This was going to be a great conversation. "Zach, this is Jackson. Who is not dead. Can you get him off of me. Please?"

Jackson smirked and squeezed my wrists a little tighter. I flinched. "I thought you said there was no Zach." He squeezed even tighter. "You know what lying does to me." He said through clenched teeth.

"I don't care. Do you really think I care what you think _Jack_?" I spat at him. He squeezed my wrists even tighter and I screamed out in pain wondering why Zach wasn't helping me. I looked over at him and he wasn't standing there anymore. "Zach? Help me!"

Jackson chuckled and looked into my eyes. "I told you. He's a good dog. He listens to what I say. Right now, he's going to get your fathers body." I felt my body go limp. My fathers body? He was kidding wasn't he? I was sure he only cut my father. I didn't think he actually hurt my father to the point of death. I let my head fall to the side and just rest on the bed.

"Why are you doing this?"

"I told you I might have to steal you, and although I said might, I am going to. We could use someone like you in the agency."

My body went rigid and I turned to face him. "I want no part of what you do. None. Do you understand me?" Zach walked in carrying my dad. I looked at him. "Is he dead?" I swallowed not really wanting the answer, but knowing that I needed to know.

"Yes." I started crying. "Sorry baby, but it was necessary." I closed my eyes as I was crying. Where did he get off thinking it was okay to still call me baby? He had been lying to me this whole time. Being Jackson's lap dog.

I looked over to Zach. "You're his lap dog? You do whatever he says?" He nodded. "I can't believe you would lie to me." Then I thought better of that. All guys have ever done to me was lie except for my father. "Wait, never mind. I can't believe I trusted you. I shouldn't have. Not after what he-" I pointed my face towards Jackson. "and my rapist did to me. Guys are all the same. How can you trust them? You can't. It's impossible to find a trust worthy guy in this world." I knew I was rambling on, but I didn't care. When I finally had finished, I noticed that Jackson had let my hands go. I moved them and tried to push him off of me.

He shook his finger at me. "We are going to walk out of here with no problems, but only after you call Cynthia and tell her that you have to stay here with your father because he's ill." I shook my head. "You will, because if you don't, I really will kill your father." I looked down at my dad who was laying on the floor near my bed. "I didn't kill him. He's unconcious. Zach wanted to see your reaction." He turned to Zach. "What did you think was going to happen? Did you think she was going to be ecstatic that her father was dead?" He shook his head as he turned back to me. "Now take out your phone and make the call. Or else."

I bit my bottom lip and grabbed my cell phone out of my pocket as I sighed. I looked up at Jackson before I dialed the number for Cynthia. "If I make the call, you'll let my dad live. Right?" I felt like I was on the red eye all over again. Having to make a phone call to save my fathers life.

Jackson smirked. "You make the call, and your father lives."

I nodded. I hesitated as I looked at my phone. I closed my eyes for a minute before I heard Zach say, "Baby, just do it."

My eyes opened instantly and I stared at him. "You have no right to call me baby, babe, honey, love, or any other cute pet name ever again. Do you understand me?" I said with as much anger as I could muster. He nodded. I scrolled down to Cynthia's name and I hit call.

"Lisa, what's going on?"

I smiled when I heard her voice. I knew that they hadn't gotten to her. It gave me hope that she would be okay, and that Mandy would be too. "I'm going to have to stay with my dad for the day. Do you think you could handle it there for the day?"

Jackson gave me a satisfied smile. "Of course. Is he alright?"

"He's fine. Look, I gotta go, I'll see you later. Tell Mandy I love her."

There was a long pause on the other end of the line. "Are you okay Lisa?"

She could always tell when something was wrong with me. That was going to be a problem. I scratched my ear and ran a hand through my hair as Jackson silently laughed. I narrowed my eyes at him. "Yea, yea I'm fine. Why?"

"You're telling me to tell Mandy you love her like you'll never see her again."

"Of course I'll see her again. Just not tonight. I meant tell her tonight that I love her." A tear fell out of my eye and down my cheek, which Jackson wiped away. "Like I said, I really gotta go. I'll call you when I can. Bye." I hung up and Jackson took my phone out of my hand before I could even blink. "What the hell do you think you are doing?"

"I'm taking your phone so you can't call for help." He got up off of me and motioned with his head towards the door. "Come on, we have a long drive to Ohio."

"Ohio?"

"Yea. That's where the training camp is. Now let's go."

I shook my head as I remained laying on my bed. "I'm not going with you."

Jackson growled as he motioned to Zach to walk over to me. "You are going with me whether you like it or not." When I shook my head again, he pointed to my father. "Fine, would you rather he be dead right now?"

"What kind of question is that? You know that I don't."

"Then you are going with me." Jackson said with a stern voice. One that I had never heard before and it scared me.

I smiled sweetly. "Can I at least go get a drink out of the fridge first?" He narrowed his eyes at me. He was questioning me. "What? I'm thirsty. Really thirsty."

"Fine. Let's go."

We walked down the stairs. Zach in front of me and Jackson in back of me. He was holding my arm, making sure I didn't run away. Not that I could, being flanked by him and having to follow Zach was a sure fire way to make sure that I couldn't get away. We finally got into the kitchen and I ran to the fridge. I opened it and found orange juice. I smiled.

I grabbed a glass and poured myself some orange juice. After I drank it, Zach looked at me. "Aren't you going to offer me some baby?"

I walked over to him and let some more frustrations out. "I just told you to stop calling me that!" Then I slapped him in the face. What I didn't anticipate however, was him punching me in the face, and me passing out.


	3. Chapter 3

**I struggled with the ending, about if I really wanted Lisa to say what she does or not... But in the end, I went with it. I hope you enjoy it!**

**Pirate Gyrl- I love how you pay attention so well! You know almost every move I'm going to make. And about Joe? We'll see what happens to him in the next chapter. ;)**

* * *

I felt like I was moving, but I was laying down. And to top it all off, I was laying down with my head on someone's lap. The last thing I remembered was seeing Jackson and Zach in my dad's house in the kitchen and Zach's fist coming at me. _That must be why my head hurt so bad. _I let out a low groan and opened my eyes. I was in the backseat of a car and someone was stroking my head. The only good thing to come out of this, was that my father was still alive. I still had no idea who's lap my head was on and I really didn't want to know. I closed my eyes again, trying to forget what was going on in my life.

Just as I about to drift off to sleep, someone whispered in my ear. "I know you're awake." I really didn't want to listen to him. "We're making a pit stop soon. To get food and go to the bathroom. If you even make any mention about who you are or what's going on, my man outside your dads house will kill him." My eyes popped open. It was Jackson that I was laying on, and that was definitely uncomfortable for me. I could have _maybe_ handled laying on Zach after everything, but not Jackson. "You can sit up now."

I did what he said and tried to stare out the window. It was practically impossible. The windows were tinted limousine black. I turned to look at Jackson. He was wearing sunglasses which was ridiculous considering there was no sun in the backseat. "So, you basically don't want me knowing how to get there?"

He pulled his sunglasses down and looked over at me with his blue eyes. "What are you talking about?"

I knocked on the windows. "I can't see the outside world. No one can see inside. That's the point right? No one can see me, I can't see them, so you can't be caught kidnapping me?"

He laughed pushing his sunglasses back up. I didn't think it was funny. I actually wanted to see the outside world. "I'm not kidnapping you as you put it. I'm stealing you."

"Same difference."

He shook his head. "No. You're not a kid. You can't be kidnapped." I sighed. He was always annoying in the way he talked. "Be reasonable Leese, only kids can be kidnapped. You're an adult, you're being stolen."

I turned away from him. "Can we just stop talking? I'd rather just sit here in silence. Especially when you just have to be such a smart-ass." I didn't even want to hear an answer from him, but when he didn't answer me, I felt oddly upset. I sighed again.

We sat in silence for a couple of minutes before I got up the courage to tell him what I had wanted to tell him since I had seen him in my dad's house. "Jackson?"

He turned his head towards me. "I thought you wanted to sit in silence."

I rolled my eyes. "I did, but I just wanted to tell you something first." I waited to see what he would say, but he only nodded. I let out a breath of air. He was not going to be happy when he heard this. "When you bring me to that training camp, I'm not doing whatever it is you want me to do." I swallowed hard expecting him to hit me or choke me or do something to me.

Instead, he just smiled and that scared me even more than anything else. "Sure." Then he looked away.

"I mean it."

He looked back at me. "Leese, whatever you think you're going to do, think it. But I can guarentee you that you will do what we tell you to do. Because if not, your father will die."

I was so tired of him holding my father over my head. It was sickening. "Is this how you do things? Threaten people with their families?" He nodded. "Well, you can stop threatening me with mine. In all honesty, my father hasn't looked at me the same way since you came into my life and I killed a man. He lost all respect for me after that. So threatening him doesn't help your cause."

Again he pulled down his sunglasses and looked at me with his icy-blue eyes. "The only way that would work, would be if we had him and we were threatening your life. I hope you realize this. So, if you don't do what we say, your father will die." He paused as he stared at me. "Look, it's simple Leese. Do as I say, and dear old dad lives. It's not complicated." I tried to say how I wouldn't even be a good asset to the company but he cut me off. "Don't try to be a hero like you were on the plane. Look how that turned out. You almost died and so didn't your father. If I didn't want him to see what I was going to do to you, he would have been dead already." He made a grand gesture with his hand. "Now you may say what you want, not that it will help your cause."

"I was going to say, that I won't even be a good asset to your company. I don't know what makes you think I would be. As a matter of fact, I'm on medication because of you. Which I hope you grabbed my purse, because I definitely need them now."

He looked at me with a little bit of confusion and amusement mixed in. "Because of little old me?" He smirked.

"Yes, you." He laughed. I'm surprised that Zach hadn't talked to him about it, considering they were talking this whole time. I looked out the window the best I could. "All I've done this whole time since the flight is think of you, see you, and dream of you. I've been waiting for you to come back. Whether it be in ghost form or human form, because the cops did tell me that you were dead." I really shouldn't have been telling him any of this, but I felt like he should know. "You were all I thought about. The only dream that I had that wasn't about you, was about him. And even he hurt me."

"I'm flattered."

"Don't be." I snapped. Then I looked at him. "Did you grab my purse? I need my pills."

He nodded his head to Zach who was looking in the rear-view mirror. "Are you addicted Leese? Because if you are, we're going to have to put you into rehab before you go into the training center."

I closed my eyes and shook my head. "I don't even take the stupid pills unless they're necessary. They are supposed to make me numb. Not feel anything. Right now, with you around, I'd like to not a feel a thing." Zach passed Jackson my purse and he dug around until he grabbed out two pill bottles and he looked at me questioningly. "What?"

"Why are there two?"

"One is for when I can't sleep at night or when I have a nightmare, I can take them and go to bed. The other is to feel numb."

He looked at the pill bottles then back at me. "Which is which?"

I pointed to right one. "That's the one I need right now."

"How do I know that you don't abuse these fucking things? I shouldn't even let you take them." Before I could even answer he looked up at Zach. "Has she ever abused these things? You were sent to watch her. You should know the answer."

"Nope. She barely takes those ones. Only the ones for her dreams. You should see her man, she wakes up crying." Zach started laughing. It was like he never really cared about me. I was actually hurt.

"Jackson, can I just take one. Please?" I was begging, but I needed to be numb at this moment. Was he going to give me the pill or not? I stared at him as he held the pill bottles in his hands and he stared at them.

He looked at me. "After the rest stop, I'll give you one."

I groaned. "Jackson, the fucking pill is not going to put me to sleep! As long as you don't give me the one on the left, I will stay awake. The one on the right will just make me numb. I will stiill be here but I will be distant for lack of a better word." I pushed my head as far back into the headrest as I could.

"You heard me. After the rest stop. If you don't stop asking, I won't even give you one. You got it?"

I sighed. "Fine. I got it. How much longer till we get to the rest stop?"

At that exact moment, Zach put the car in park and he turned around. "We're at the rest stop." He said while smiling.

"Thank god." I said as the doors unlocked and I opened my door. I was glad that I could finally stretch my legs for a little bit.

Jackson walked over to my side of the car and grabbed my hand. He bent down to my ear. "Act like we're a cute couple." I looked at him with a look of confusion and disgust mixed in.

"You can't be serious. I'd rather do that with Zach." _Even though he's no better than you._

He laughed. "No such luck. I don't trust you."

We walked to entrance and Jackson gave me a stern look. "Five minutes. If you aren't out by then, I'm coming in." I nodded knowing what was on the line. Besides, when we were back in the car, I got to have my pills.

I was out of the bathroom within three minutes and Jackson was waiting for me. "Glad to see that you didn't try anything funny." He took my hand in his and I let him lead me to the car. Besides, it felt kind of nice. Which was the wrong way of thinking, considering that he had tried to kill me once before and he had just kidnapped me.

I looked up at him. "I wouldn't do that. My fathers life is on the line."

"But I thought you said-"

"I know what I said. And it's the truth. He doesn't look at me the same anymore. Not since I killed a man." We finally reached the car and Jackson opened the door for me. I slid in. Jackson got in on the other side and I looked at him expectantly.

"What?"

"Can I have one of those pills now?"

He pulled the pill bottle out of his pocket and he took one of the pills out and handed it to me. "This is the last pill you will ever take. Do you understand me? You can not become addicted to them while you are working for the agency."

I swallowed the pill and looked at him. "Jackson, I need the pills to stay sane. Because of you. You did this to me. I wish you would realize this."

"Don't make me throw them out of the car. I will. You know very well when I say something that I will do it." I sighed. Why couldn't he just understand that he was cause of all of my problems? He was the reason that the hotel had to be remodeled, that at first I was almost not believed until Keefe told the feds that he believed me, and that I believed I was going crazy.

I looked at him. "Can we try to come to a compromise?"

He eyed me suspiciously. "What kind of compromise?"

"Let me take the pills." When he was getting ready to interrupt me, I continued on. "Only when I absolutely need them! You can determine that though."

"Leese, I don't like it. You sound like you _are_ addicted to the pills already." He kicked the front seat that Zach was sitting in. "You told me that she wasn't addicted to them!" He screamed at Zach. I flinched.

"I'm not addicted to them." I groaned as I started to get tired. "You just don't get it, and you gave me the wrong pill."

"What are you talking about?" He snapped at me.

"You gave me the one to sleep when I have nightmares."

I slumped my head against the window which wasn't exactly comfortable, but I wasn't about to lay back down on Jackson. I brought my feet up on the seat and curled myself in a ball. Jackson grabbed my arm and pulled me to him. "If you're going to go to sleep, you're going to go to sleep on me."

"I'd really rather not." I murmered.

"Doesn't matter what you would rather do and rather not do. I'm telling you that you are going to go to sleep on me. It's better than having you smack your head on the window if we hit a bump. Deal with it." I sighed as he helped me get comfortable in his arms. Then I slowly fell asleep listening to him and Zach banter back and forth about which team was better, the white sox or the red sox. Personally, I was with Jackson on this. The red sox were definitely better than the white sox.

* * *

I knew I was dreaming the moment I was walking down the street, which was weird because Jackson had given me the pill that caused me _not_ to dream. It didn't make any sense. _I was walking down the street looking behind me as if someone was following me. That's when I suddenly started running. I looked behind me again and there was Jackson holding a knife in his hand. I was searching for anyone to help me. But no one was around. This couldn't be right, it was the middle of the day and people were usually outside, especially in my old neighborhood. Which I suddenly noticed that I was in._

_I saw my fathers house and ran inside locking the door behind me. Wake up Lisa! Why wouldn't I wake up? I ran upstairs and there was Jackson sitting on my bed like he was waiting for me there the whole time. I turned to run out of my room, but he was there and grabbed my wrist. _How the hell am I still sleeping? I should be awake by now!_ He dragged me out of the room and down to the living room where my father was badly beaten on the floor. I tried to run to him but Jackson pulled me over to a chair in the opposite side of the room and he pushed me down into it. He pulled rope out of his pocket and started to tie my arms down to the arm rests. I was struggling to get free. "What are you doing?" I finally screamed at him. Finally getting up enough courage to talk to him._

_He just gave me a pointed look and turned away from me once he made sure that my restraints were nice and tight and that I wasn't getting away. He started walking towards my father who was still on the floor and he pulled out his knife as he lifted my fathers head. "This is what happens when you fuck up a job for me." Then he slit my fathers throat right in front of my eyes._

I woke up screaming in the car with tears streaming down my cheeks. The car swerved and I jumped out of Jackson's arm to the other side of the car. "What the fuck is wrong with you?" I shook my head hugging myself.

"That's what I've had to deal with for the past couple of months since I've moved in with her." Zach said from the front seat. "Whenever she has a dream of you, she wakes up screaming. That's why she needs those fucking pills. Dr. Ames prescribed them to her."

Jackson stared at Zach. "Dr. Ames? As in Sarah?" Zach nodded. "You sent Leese to Sarah?" He nodded again. Jackson looked over at me with concern, but yet amusement in his eyes. "That was really all because of me? That's impressive."

I turned my head to stare out of the window, even though it was a strain to do so. I tried to roll down my window, but I guessed they had the child lock on or something. I closed my eyes and leaned my head against the window taking deep breaths, trying to calm myself. It was only a dream after all. He wouldn't really do that, would he? Apparently Jackson and Zach both knew Dr. Ames, this couldn't be a good thing for me. I shook my in frustration.

I felt him touch my arm and I flinched away from him. "Was it really that bad?" I nodded. "Tell me about it."

I shot my head up and stared at him with what I hoped was eyes cold as ice. "Why? So you can actually do it to me? So you can actually hurt me that bad?" I paused and turned my head away from him. "I don't think so. I wouldn't give you the satisfication of even knowing half of what my dreams consist of."

"Zach's already told me most of them. This one can't be much worse then me chasing you around with a knife. Can it? Because that's all you've ever told him I do to you in the dreams."

I shook my head in frustration. "It was worse. It was the worse dream yet."

He tsked at me. "I didn't hurt Mandy, did I?" He said it mockingly.

Again I turned my head to look at him. "No, but if you ever try that, I will kill you."

I closed my eyes and let myself picture Mandy sitting down at the table with Cynthia getting ready for dinner. I smiled. "Picturing how you would kill me? Because it wouldn't be easy Leese, you couldn't do it last time. You can't do it now." I ignored his statement. I kept thinking about Mandy and Cynthia. I missed them already. It was hard to think that I would probably never see them again. "Leese, you can trust me."

I scoffed. "That's completely insane. No one can trust you."

"I can." Zach spoke up.

"Shut up Zach. I wasn't talking to you, and I don't want to talk to you. Not ever again. Especially after what you pulled."

He looked at me through the rear-view mirror. "It was part of the job."

"I'm tired of being 'part of a job.' I thought you actually loved me. I can't trust another guy ever again."

This time it was Jackson who spoke up. "Aww come on Leese, of course you can trust another guy. You can trust me. I just told you so." He reached over and caressed my face.

I pushed his hand away. "Don't touch me. If I could, I would jump out of the car." Just to prove my point, I went to open the door, but of course it was locked and when I went to unlock it, Jackson grabbed my arm and pulled me over to him.

"I wouldn't do that again if I were you." He pulled his phone out of his pocket and hit a couple of numbers. I tried to move back to my original position in the car, but Jackson was having none of it. He kept a vice like grip on me. I sighed and relented. "Sarah, it's Jackson. You have a patient by the name of Lisa Reisert." He waited for a response. "Yea, yea. Cut the bullshit. If you don't tell me what I want to know, I'll have Alice make you tell me." More silence on Jacksons end. "That's what I thought. Why did you prescribe her these stupid fucking pills? And, why did you not tell me about the dreams?"

I looked up at him. "Because of patient-"

He covered my mouth with his free hand and I tried to get it off, but he just wouldn't let go. "Hmm. That's funny, because she took the one for the dreams, and she still had a fucking nightmare Sarah. She just woke up screaming in the car." I wanted to scream at him to shut up. "Because, they want her to start training." When he wasn't talking, the silence was deafening. "I told them what she did on the plane, when the phone went out, she kept talking. She made me think the phone was still on. If it wasn't for the guy next to me, I wouldn't have known that the fucking phones weren't working. She also can fight and shoot a gun. She'd be a real asset and Alice agrees. Now, tell me, does she really need these pills?" I looked up at his face and I wanted to see if I could get an answer by the look on his face. "Thanks." Then he hung up.

He looked down at me and still hadn't un-covered my mouth. "I think I like you better this way." I shook my head in aggravation. Could he really be this annoying? He finally let go of my mouth. "By the way, she said you need the fucking pills. You're lucky. If she would have said you didn't, I would have flung them out the window."

I rolled my eyes at him and stared at the window. "Can I at least sit by the door?"

"Why would you want to do that?" He said in an angry voice. "Don't you want to sit next to me for old times sake? Like the plane?" He kept his arm around my shoulders and I was starting to shake.

I scratched my head and tried a different tactic to get away from him. "Um, I'm hungry." I was hoping it would work. I just wanted to get away from him. I was hungry, but my main concern was getting away from him at the moment.

"Zach, next exit get off and find a hotel. We'll order food." That was not what I had planned. I wanted a public place where I could possibly get away. Not possibly, definitely get away. They wouldn't try anything in a really public place. Of course, knowing Jackson, he would say I was mentally unstable or something and that he was taking care of me.

* * *

About 20 minutes later we pulled into a hotel parking lot and Zach went inside to get a room leaving me in the car with Jackson who still had me in his arms. "Are you ever going to let me go?"

He shifted a little bit. "No."

"Not even to get out of the fucking car? That could look a little suspicious _Jack_."

He let go of me and turned me to face him. "You know not to call me that." His voice was full of anger and I could see the anger flicker in his eyes. He was talking but I wasn't even listening at this point. At the sound of a car door slamming, I jumped and Jackson grabbed my shoulders making me look him in the eyes. "When you asked me if I was ever going to let you go, I thought you meant ever. I didn't think you meant in the car. That's why I said no." He said with a much softer voice.

I sighed and just nodded. I knew that I would get out of this, one way or the other. Whether it be death or getting out of it legitimately. Jackson let go of my shoulders and pulled me closer to him again. I groaned. "How many beds did you get?" Jackson asked Zach.

"Two."

I looked at the window. "I get one to myself."

Jackson waved his finger in front of my face. "That will not happen. You will be sharing a bed with one of us." He gave me his stupid sly smirk. "Can you guess which one?" I shook my head vigorously. Hoping it wasn't him, also knowing that it most likely was him because of his stupid smile. "Aww come on Leese, guess."

"I don't have to." I said as I looked away crying. "Either way, I'll be sleeping next to the devil. So why does it matter? One of you has tried to kill me, and the other has been lying to me for over a year." I wiped away my tears as they silently fell.

"Lisa, you can sleep next to me if you want."

I looked up at Zach at the same that Jackson snapped his head in Zach's direction. That was weird, it was almost like he was jealous. But that couldn't be. Jackson only wanted me for the agency, right? "What I _want_ is to go home and never have to deal with either of you again. But I guess we don't get what we want do we?" I turned my head away as Zach backed away from the front of the lobby and drove to the front of our room.

Once we parked, Zach unlocked the doors. Jackson opened his and grabbed my hand pulling me towards him. I gave him one of the dirtiest looks I could muster and used my other hand to tuck my stray hair behind my ear. We walked into the room that was small. I was surprised it even held two beds. I immediately ran to one of the beds and jumped on it. I knew it was silly, but I somehow thought the bed would keep me safe.

"What do you want to eat?" Jackson asked as he came over and sat down next to me. I shook my head. He ran a hand through his hair. "I can't make you eggs, Leese."

"I know. It's a motel, not a friggin kitchen."

He put his hand on my knee and I flinched. "Don't make this difficult Leese." I shook my head again. "For christ's sakes Leese. Do you like pizza?" I nodded slowly. "Can you at least fucking talk to me?"

"What would you like me to say? That I'm glad you came back into my life? That I'm glad you threatened my father's life yet again? That I'm glad you had one of your fucking lap dogs worm his way into my heart?"

He raised his eyebrows. "No, no. Not at all. I just wanted to know what kind of pizza you liked. You know, cheese, pepperoni, mushroom, sausage? Something else?"

I let my head fall back as I groaned and stared at the ceiling. "Extra cheese."

"That wasn't so hard now was it?" He looked at Zach as I said no and told him to call a pizza place and order three large pizza's. For what? I had no idea. I wasn't even going to make a dent in one large pizza. I didn't think they would both eat a large.

Apparently I was wrong about the pizza. They each ate a large pizza to themseleves and then ate the rest of what I didn't eat. Who knew these two guys who were skinny, although muscular could eat that much food? Certainly not me. Jackson looked at me. "After you take a shower, I'll take one and then Zach can take one."

"And what will I wear?"

"Zach packed you a few days worth of clothes."

I shot him a death glare. How dare he? I mean, yea he was a part of Jackson's plan, but he didn't have to be so accomidating. "Well, that was mighty nice of him, wasn't it?"

Jackson cocked his head to the side. "I thought it was, unless you want to wear those clothes again?"

"No. I'll wear the clothes that Zach brought for me." I said through clenched teeth. I got up and stared at Jackson. "Where are they?"

Zach jumped up. "I'll go get them." He ran outside leaving me with Jackson yet again.

"Do you think, maybe-" I stopped. I didn't even want to ask him. Knowing he would flip out. "Never mind." I started to turn around but he grabbed my wrist and pulled me onto his lap as I yelped.

"What did you want to ask me?"

I rolled my eyes. "Nothing. You'll just yell at me the moment I ask anyways."

He pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes. "You want those damn pills, don't you?"

I bit my lip and nodded. "I know you won't give them to me, that's why I stopped before I fully got the question out."

He sighed and started playing with my hair. "The moment we get to the training center, you will not be taking them anymore. The sooner you stop taking them, the better."

"You have to give me time to get used to being next to you."

"Is that why you're shaking? Cause you're next to me?" I nodded. "You think I'm going to hurt you, your father, Cynthia, or Mandy. Don't you?" Again I nodded. "Enough with the silence. You can talk to me."

"Fine, yea, I think you're going to me or them. Is that what you want to hear?"

"No, because I won't. I just threaten them to get you to do what I want."

He pulled me closer to him. "You've got to be kidding me. You only threaten them to get me to do what you want me to do? Why not just knock me out, drug me, i don't know, something else!" I screamed at him.

He shook his head. "That's not how it's done."

I tried to pull away. "I can't even deal with this right now." I pushed against his chest and he finally let me go. "Just leave me alone!" I yelled as I ran to the bathroom. I slammed the door shut and fell on the floor crying. I could hear the guys talking through the door. Zach was asking if I was going to be strong enough for the training camp and Jackson growled. Like literally growled. I heard him say something along the lines of "She has to be." or "She will be." Either way, I jumped up and opened the door. "I don't like being talked about like I'm not here." They stared at me in shock. "Now, where are my clothes?" Zach handed them to me and I walked back into the bathroom and took my shower.

Finally it was time for bed and I was sitting on the bed that I had chosen when I walked in. I smiled at the two guys. "You two can share that bed, and I'll sleep here."

Jackson and Zach looked at each and started laughing. "Not happening, like I said in the car." He walked over to me wearing only his sweatpants and I had to turn my head because he still looked good. But he looked even better without a shirt on. "Zach and I had a talk while you were in the shower. You're sleeping next to me tonight."

That got my attention. "Can't I sleep next to Zach?"

"Why would you want to do that?"

I shrugged. "I've been doing it for months now, and I would rather sleep next to him than next to someone who has tried to kill me." _Plus, he doesn't look nearly as good as you do in sweatpants and I don't want to feel that attraction to you._ I turned my head away Jackson.

Zach looked at me. "Sorry, you'll be sleeping next to him from now on for the duration of this trip. When we get to the training center, you'll have your own bed." He got up off of his bed and walked into the bathroom to take his shower.

I lay back on my bed and sighed. This just couldn't be happening. This had to be a nightmare I was having and just wasn't waking up from. "Wake up. Wake up. Wake up."

"What are you talking about? You are awake." Jackson said as laid down next me, looking at me as propped himself up on his elbow. His blue eyes shining and his dark hair glistening from being wet.

I shook my head. "I was just hoping this was a horrible nightmare and maybe I wasn't waking up from it."

He smiled. "Nope. You're stuck with me."

I closed my eyes and groaned. "Don't remind me."

Zach came out of the bathroom and I looked up. He was in sweatpants too. Of course they both looked good in just sweatpants without a shirt on. And they were with the agency. Couldn't I have just found a nice guy to fall in love with? A _normal_ guy? I wasn't one of those girls who fell for a bad boy through-out her life. And yet, here I was with two of them. I sighed and thought about how different my life could have been had I went into law enforcement like my father wanted me to. But then I wouldn't have met Cynthia or Mandy.

"Ready for bed?" Jackson's question had brought me out of my thoughts.

"No. Not yet. I'm not tired."

He got off of the bed and walked away. I closed my eyes thankful for a moment of peace of by myself. I really was tired, but I didn't trust them enough to fall asleep next to or near them. All of a sudden, I felt cool metal wrap around my right wrist and then I heard a click. I jumped up as I heard another click. "Jackson, what the hell do you think you are doing?"

He looked at me like I was dumb. "Handcuffing you to me so you don't try to get away. Especially after the plane, I'm taking no chances with you." He held out his other hand to me. "This is the only night you are getting this." I reached out and grabbed the pill that he was handing me. "Do you understand me?"

"Yes, Jackson. I get it. The only night I'm getting it. Even if I wake up screaming." He rolled his eyes at me. "Anything to drink with this?" He nodded his at Zach.

Zach brought me a cup of water from the sink. It wasn't my favorite thing to drink. I hated tap water. I usually only drank bottled water, unless it was necessary. "I'm glad we have an understanding." He got into bed beside me. "Now, time to get comfortable."

I scoffed. "This is not going to be comfortable at all."

"Sure it will, watch." He turned his body to face mine and put his right arm around my waist pulling me closer to him. Then he turned back onto his back. "Nope, this isn't right. Hold on." He grabbed the keys to the handcuffs and took them off.

I immediatly scooted back over to my side of the side and turned the other way. There was no way I was going to let him handcuff me again. And of course I was wrong. He had Zach sit me up on the bed and hold my arms down with one arm and then cover my mouth with his free hand so I couldn't scream. This time he placed the handcuff on my left wrist and when I was released he put his left hand behind my back and had Zach place the other handcuff to his left wrist. "Much better." He smiled. "Come here."

"I'd rather not." I scowled.

"I already told you it doesn't matter what you would rather not do or rather do. What I tell you to do, is what you will do."

He pulled me to him and laid me down on his bare chest. My eyes went wide. This could not be a good thing for me. Not at all. "This is surprising."

"What is?"

"You have a heart beat. I thought people with no hearts couldn't have a heart beat."

He actually laughed at this. "At least you have a sense of humor. That's a good thing." He started stroking my hair like he had in the car. "You'll need it to make it through it this."

What the hell did he mean by that? "Can I have a pillow?"

He chuckled. "No. I can't risk you trying to suffocate me while I'm sleeping. Now can I?" Then I started to get tired and yawned. My eyelids were getting heavy. "Zach, can you hit the lights? We have to be out of here by nine tomorrow. Maybe earlier if she decides to be up on time."

Zach turned off the lights and we were in complete darkness and there was no noise. All of a sudden I was hyper-ventilating. That had never happened before. Jackson grabbed my face and brought it up to his. "Zach, put the light back on." He order. When the light was back on, his eyes were locked on mine and I was still hyper-ventilating. "Leese, are you okay?" I shook my head. "What's wrong?"

My eyes roamed the room. "I think being stuck in here with you, with no light, and no noise, is really getting to me."

He grabbed my chin and held my face in place so that I could look into his eyes. "I'm not going to hurt you. Just relax and go to sleep. You'll see that you will wake up in the morning and you will be fine."

My breathing started to even out and I stared at his face. _His perfect face._ "Promise?"

"I promise Leese. You will be fine. Nothing will happen to you. Just go to sleep."

Zach stood up and walked over to our bed and sat down next to me. "I have a question."

We both looked at him. "What?" Jackson asked him with venom in his voice, like he had ruined a private moment.

"How come you can call her Leese, but no one else can?"

I bit my lip and Jackson had a smirk on his. "That's easy."

"Oh yea, then answer it."

"Because she loves me. Don't you Leese?"

My eyes opened wide. "I- What?"

"Oh, don't sweat it Leese, it's not a big deal." He started laughing and I knew it was at my expense because my face was red. "I'm kidding. It's because we have a bond and you would know nothing about it. You weren't there to share that bond Zach. Yea, you were with her, with her, but what you had was fake. At least to you. What she and I had at first was real. Wasn't it Leese?"

I pursed my lips. How was I supposed to answer this? I knew he was telling the truth. What we had at first was real. I did feel something for him. But wait, how could I know that what he was feeling was real? "What I felt was real, but how do I know what you felt was real? I was just a mark to you."

He shook his head. "I didn't have to talk to you before we got on that plane. I didn't have to invite you to the Tex Mex. I did that because I _wanted_ to get to know you more. I was- no am attracted to you." He looked at Zach. "Yes, you heard that right, I'm attracted to Leese. I saw her first, so don't get all bent out of shape. I know there's no hope for her and I, but there's also no hope for you and her. So let's forget this whole conversation and just go to sleep."

Zach got off of the bed and shut off the light again. I was left laying there in Jackson's arm reeling from what I had just learning. He was attracted to me? How? I was just a plain jain compared to the people he probably worked with. I mean, he probably wanted a woman who was as exciting as him. I was boring. I stayed home and watched movies all night and made scrambled eggs at three a.m. What could he possibly see in me? I laid my head down and closed my eyes. That was when I felt him kiss the top of my head. I opened my eyes and sighed. _Why me?_ "Goodnight Leese. Sweet dreams." Jackson whispered in my ears and I got a chill that went throughout my body. What was I going to do?

I lifted my head and he leaned down me. "Something you want to say Leese?"

I bit the inside of my cheek. Should I say it? Would he even care? That was the biggest question. I closed my eyes and whispered, "I'm attracted to you too for some weird reason."

I laid my head back down and I heard him say, "I already knew that. I knew that when you shot me." I rolled my eyes. He was always so smug. Which was aggravating, but eerily sexy in the way he carried himself. I sighed and closed my eyes. "Something wrong Leese?"

"Nope. Just trying to go to sleep." He was stroking my hair again. I probably should have started hyper-ventilating again, but I didn't. Instead, I fell asleep into a night full of blissful dreams.


	4. Chapter 4

When I woke up, I was alone in the bed. Jackson seemed to have been either in the bathroom or out of the hotel room. I looked over at the other bed and Zach wasn't there either. This was too good to be true. I could easily run outside and run away before either of them knew where I was. I could make it back it home and find a new place to live. Before I could even think of chickening out, I ran for the door. Once I was outside, I ran to the street jogging down it, so it wouldn't be to suspicious. I don't know why I cared if I looked suspicious or not, but I did.

After I had run for about a mile or so, a car pulled up next to me and Jackson jumped out of the back of the car. Stopping me in my tracks. I tried to run around him, but he grabbed my wrist. "Just where the fuck do you think you're going?" I turned my head away from his. I wasn't going to play his game. "Home? Is that where you were going? You want to go home? Fine. Let's go home."

All of a sudden another car pulled over and a guy got out of the drivers seat. He walked over to us. "Is there a problem here?" I was hoping he would just leave. I didn't want anyone getting hurt. I knew for sure if I even let on that something was wrong, this guy would get hurt. Severly hurt.

"Sir, this is my girlfriend and we had a fight. I'm trying to get her to come back home with me. Right Lisa?" I was shocked he even used my real name. I looked at the guy and nodded to him. Giving him my best reassuring smile. Hoping that it would work for him.

The guy looked into my eyes. "Miss, is this really your boyfriend? You can tell me. I'm an off duty police officer, and I'm here to help you."

I looked at Jackson with a smug look then back at the police officer. Jackson had let go of my wrist. My only thought was, do I trust Jackson to bring me home like he said he would, or should I tell this guy that I know nothing about, who could potentionally work with them that they kidnapped me? I sighed as I pursed my lips. "I'm sorry sir, we had a fight and I went for a walk, which turned into a jog. He came to find me. Thankfully because I'm just to tired to walk home."

"Are you sure miss? Because if there's anything wrong, you can tell me. I can help you."

What was it going to take to have this guy leave? An idea went through my head, but it repulsed me to even think about it. I smiled as I turned to Jackson. "I'm sorry I didn't clean the house yesterday. I was just extremely busy watching Mandy. I know I didn't clean it last night either, but you know how I get when I watch her. I get so involved with hanging out with her. Taking her to the park, playing pretend, and cooking. I get so exhausted baby. I just wanted to sleep last night. When we get home, I'll clean the mess we made." Then I stepped up on my tip-toes and kissed him on the lips and he joined in by putting his arms around my back picking me up and deepening the kiss.

Once he released me, I smiled for good measure. "It's okay babe. I'm over it. Let's just go home."

I nodded and looked over at the man who pulled over. "Thank you for pulling over. It's means alot to me." I waved to him as I got into the car. Once Jackson was inside and we were safely driving away, I looked over at him. "You are _so_ lucky I didn't just bust you back there!"

"You're lucky you convinced him you were okay." He moved closer to me. "That kiss was definitely convincing."

Zach piped up from the front. "Excuse me? You two kissed?"

"Jealous Zach? By the way, I can see why you never talked about her in an intimate way." He started playing with my hair and I started cracking my knuckles. "I bet the sex is great, or rather, was great. Because that kiss was amazing." I looked down at the floor. I was not going to give him an answer. There was no reason to. "Zach, care to comment on it?"

"No. That's none of your business." I breathed a sigh of relief. At least Zach had the common decency not to blab about our sex life.

Jackson laughed. "You know Zach, we had a quickie once."

My head snapped up. "Excuse me, we did not."

"Lisa, is this true?" Zach's voice was filled with hurt.

I looked at Zach and shook my head furiously. "No. Not at all." I looked at Jackson with hatred in my eyes. "He was referring to the scuttle we had on the plane in the bathroom. After he threw me against the wall, he ushered me out of the bathroom and the flight attendant caught us. He pretended it was a quickie. It wasn't. I would never."

Zach nodded. "So where are we going?"

"Back to Leese's house." Zach looked in the mirror like Jackson had said something crazy. "Trust me, I know we won't get to the training center for another couple of days, but it's okay." He turned to me and smiled.

I didn't know what that smile was about, but something about it made me not trust it. I was very concerned all of a sudden. "I'm hungry." I said all of a sudden. It was involuntarily. Yes, I was hungry, but I didn't mean to just blurt it out.

Jackson rubbed his eyes. "Leese, we just got in the fucking car. What do you expect me to do?"

I didn't know why he was giving me such an attitude from him. "I don't know? Stop at a fast food place and get breakfast?"

He looked at Zach. "Pull into a McDonalds and order us breakfast. Ms. priss here wants breakfast." He turned his head back to me. "You'll get your scrambled eggs yet Leese."

I narrowed my eyes at him and turned to stare out the window. He was making fun of me? This was ridiculous. "Why are we going back to my house?"

"It's a surprise. Don't ruin it." He looked up at Zach. "It was actually all of Zach's idea, so you can thank him for it." I looked at Zach and he was narrowing his eyes at Jackson.

"I don't like the tone of your voice. It's not a good surprise is it?"

He grabbed my neck and pulled my head in his direction so I could look into his eyes. "Would you just relax until we get there. You'll see."

"Can you at least-"

"Lisa, shut the fuck up until we get there."

I rested my head on the back of seat and let out of a rush of air. This was stupid. And since when did Jackson call me Lisa? He always called me Leese. I looked over at him and he was drumming his fingers on his thigh. He looked almost nervous.

* * *

When we finally got back to my house, Jackson brought me up to my room. "Sit here and don't move until I tell you to. Understand?" I nodded. Something in his voice was telling me to just listen to him for a little bit. He seemed on edge, and I didn't know exactly what he would do, especially when he had an accomplice this time. Sure he had one last time, but this time they weren't seperated, they were together. Jackson walked out of my room and finally came back with my purse, throwing it on my bed. "Take out your phone and call Cynthia telling her you won't be in today."

"I should have already done that."

He charged at me grabbing my shoulders shaking me slightly. _Why was I ever attracted to him?_ "Just fucking do it!" He said as he turned around. "Oh, and don't tell her anything that could get her killed." My jaw fell open. Didn't he just tell me that he wouldn't hurt her or Mandy? He walked out of my room and I heard the front door slam shut.

I pressed in Cynthia's number. I decided to just tell her I was taking a week off not counting yesterday. "Lisa? Where the hell have you been? You haven't been answering my calls!"

I rolled my eyes. I knew this was going to happen. "Cynthia, I had to leave the state. That's why I'm calling. I'm going to need a week off. Maybe longer. My aunt is sick and I'm taking care of her. Do you think you can get that all straightened out with Allen?"

"I talked to your father and he didn't say anything about your aunt Lucy being sick."

"I wasn't talking about my aunt Lucy. I was talking about my aunt Cathy. You know he doesn't talk to her. He doesn't like her."

I was trying to choice my words carefully. My aunt Lucy lived in California and my aunt Cathy lived in Pennsylvania. It was close enough to Ohio that maybe Jackson wouldn't know that I had sent them there. "I can let him know. Oh lisa, I hope she's alright. By the way, Mandy's been asking for you."

That tore at my heart. I looked at my nightstand where I kept a picture of her at all times. "Tell her I miss her."

"I will. Hey, is Zach with you? Because she's been bothering me to hang out with him also." I didn't even know if I was supposed to answer that, but before I could, she answered it for me. "Nope, here he is. Want to talk to him?"

Before I could even tell her yes or no, his voice rang in my ear. "Lisa, how are you darling?"

I was shaking. I couldn't believe he would even go there. "What the hell are you doing there?"

"I'm just visiting Cynthia. When she goes on break, I was thinking that we could go get Mandy and go get some ice cream. I wish you were here babe, but I know that you can't be."

"If you even put a finger on Mandy, I will kill you." I said evenly. I couldn't believe Jackson would go back on his word. He told me he wouldn't hurt them.

He laughed. "Okay babe. I'll talk to you later. Here's Cynthia."

Before he handed the phone to her, I heard her say that she couldn't believe that he wasn't with me in Pennsylvania. There goes my element of surprise. Then I heard him say something along the lines of him having to work the next few days. I groaned as she grabbed the phone. "Lisa, I gotta go. We have a bunch of people coming in and then I'm leaving with Zach. Talk to you later." Before I could stop her, she hung up the phone.

I threw the phone on the floor and the back and the battery came out. I curled up on my bed and started crying. I couldn't tell you how long I cried for, but I can tell you that I cried myself to sleep.

* * *

Just at the start of a dream, someone started shaking me to wake me up. "What?" I snapped.

"Come on, I told you I have a surprise, and I meant it." His voice was cold and hard. I crawled over to the side of the bed and climbed off. I looked up at his face just to see if anything would be given away. It wasn't. Not until we walked out to my living room.

My father was laying on my floor badly beaten. I started crying as I tried to run to him and Zach stopped me. "Not so fast." He dragged me over to a chair where he pushed me down into it. I tried to stand up but hands from behind me held me down. I looked back and there was Jackson. Zach took out rope and tied my hands up.

"Zach, what are doing?" He shouldn't have been helping Jackson, but this was taking it to a whole other level.

He looked up at me. "Teaching you a lesson. You can't run away without consequences. Jackson told you what would happen if you tried anything stupid."

I tried to kick him. "He also told me He would never hurt my father!"

He walked over to the table where he had duct tape and a knife laying down on it. He picked up the duct tape and walked back over to me. "He's not. I am." I gasped at how calous he sounded when he talked about my father that way. "I didn't want it to be this way Lisa, I really didn't." He ripped off a piece of tape and tried to attach it to my mouth, but I kept moving my face.

"Please don't do this." I said through my tears.

Zach gave Jackson a pointed look. He held my face in place as Zach placed the tape over my mouth. "Was this one of your dreams?" I looked away. He got up and walked over to the table grabbing the knife then walking to my father. "But don't you see? It has to happen. You have to learn your lesson. I'm sorry Lisa, but if you had just listened, none of this would have happened. You know that."

I shook my head furiously as he lifted my dad's head and slit his throat. I screamed and it come out muffled because of the tape. "That's why I had to tape your mouth shut. So you wouldn't wake the neighbors up. We couldn't have the police called, now could we?"

My head fell and I cried some more once my dad stopped gurgeling. My father wasn't supposed to die this way. He wasn't supposed to be involved in this. Zach grabbed my chin and made me look him in the eyes. "Are we going to have any more incidents?" I shook my head. He was even worse than Jackson was. "Good, cause if we do, Cynthia and Mandy are next. Got it?" I nodded. He looked at Jackson who had walked in front of me. "This was your bright idea, clean this up." Then he walked out of the room.

* * *

After Jackson untied me, I fell to the floor in misery. My father was dead. The only man that I have ever trusted fully was dead. The only man that I would have been able to trust ever again was now dead. And it was because I had decided that running from these two was a good idea. I was wrong. "Is there anything you want to take from here? You get one thing to take, and one thing only. I'm being nice."

I thought about it and nodded. I got on my feet and shakily made it to my room. I grabbed the picture of Mandy on my nightstand and turned around to see Jackson standing there. "Nice choice. I was going to suggest that if you didn't choose anything else."

I walked past him and into the hallway. "When are we leaving?"

"Just as soon as Zach's done cleaning up everything. We don't want to leave any traces of us being here. Of course there can be traces of him, but none of you and I being here."

I nodded and walked outside. He followed me. "What is wrong with you?"

I turned on him like a whirlwind. "What do you think is wrong with me? You just made one of my worst nightmares come true. And let me tell you, it was almost word for word and it was definitely picture for picture. So thanks for that." I spat at him.

"This wasn't even my idea! You're going to be angry at me?" He ran a hand through his hair like he was conflicted. "Are you going to behave and not try to run away from us anymore?"

I scoffed at him. "To protect Cynthia and Mandy, I would listen to the devil himself." Then I threw my arms in his direction. "Oh wait, I am. So yes, I will behave and do whatever you say." I gave a slight bow and turned back towards the car.

He unlocked the car and opened the door for me. I climbed inside and he followed. "Good. Cause I would hate to kill such an adorable little girl."

"If you touch one hair on her head, I will kill you myself. I already threatened Zach when he took them out for ice cream today."

He pointed his finger in my face. "Yea, about that. Pennsylvania? Trying to get them close to Ohio? Good thing I lied about where the training center is."

My jaw dropped. "You did what?"

"Yep. It's not in Ohio. It's really in Arizona." He had his smug smirk on his face. I was so fed up with everything that I just hauled off and smacked him in the face. He rubbed his face where I hit him and he smiled. "I'll let that one slide. Considering you just watched me kill your father and you found out I lied to you for the first time since I met you."

* * *

All the way to Arizona, I sat staring out the window. Every once in a while, tears would fall down my face and I would think about never seeing my father again. Whenever we would stop at a rest stop, Jackson would make me take his hand and walk with him. Whenever we would stop at a motel, he would make me sleep next to him and he would handcuff me to him like the first night that we spent at the motel. Jackson definitely refused to give me any more pills. No matter how many nightmares I had. Which happened quite a lot after my father had been killed by Zach. I hadn't said a word to Jackson or Zach and Jackson was getting worried. He would try to get me to talk to him by bringing up the Tex Mex or by saying that he still found me attractive. He even tried to get me to talk by throwing both bottles of pills out the window. I just laughed inwardly because he had made a huge mistake. Throwing those bottles outside with my name on them could have been the worse thing he ever did. Of course, he must have known what I was thinking because he grabbed my hand and began talking. "Just so you know, I took your name off of the bottles. No one will know that those pills were yours." I shook my head. I should have known he would have done something like that. "Did you think I was an amature?"

When we finally got to Arizona, he helped me out of the car and took my hand in his as he walked me through the doors of this small building in the middle of nowhere. There were no windows and I instantly didn't want to walk any further, but Jackson pulled me along. I sighed and Jackson looked backed at me. "Wow, you actually do make some kind of noise." He smirked. "Now, the question is, can you still talk?" I rolled my eyes and kept quiet.

We walked down a long corridor and then turned right where there were rows of doors. I was actually really nervous to see what was behind them. I jumped into Jackson when I heard a woman screaming in pain. He looked at me again and laughed. "Relax, it's only someone who's here for training." My eye's opened wide in fear. _That's training? I want nothing to do with that kind of training._ I thought to myself.

I shook my head and said the closest thing to a word in almost a week. "Mmm mmm."

"Excuse me? Was that a word?"

I closed my eyes and shook my head and he started pulling me forward again. "I said no!" I struggled against him and finally I broke free of his grip.

"I see you've gotten your voice back. Why now of all times Leese? I mean, you haven't said a fucking thing in almost a week. It seems kind of pathetic to say something now. Doesn't it?"

I backed away from him and backed right into Zach. I fell to the floor hugging my legs. "I'm not cut out for this! You've got the wrong girl. You must know this Jackson."

He knelt down in front of me holding the picture of Mandy in front of my face. "What I know, is that you have it in you to become that girl. If you want to go back home," he pointed to Mandy. "This girl will disappear. Do you want that?" I shook my head. "Then I suggest you just do as I say, and not try to play the hero this time. What do you say?"

"Fine. Fine, I'll do it." _But when I do it, you're the first one I'm coming after for threatening the people I love and for killing my father._

He gave me that slick smirk again and all I wanted to do was smack him in it. "Just so you know, I know what you're thinking."

I gave him a confused look as he helped me stand up. "What do you mean?"

He walked me down the corridor until we stopped at a door and he opened it throwing the door wide open, ushering me in. Definitely no windows to escape from. The room was white with one bed and one night stand. I looked to the right and near the bed, there was a bathroom. Basically it was my own little apartment all except a kitchen. There was a closet full of uniforms. White shirts and knee lenght black skirts. Not much different from what I wore at the Lux. I sighed and Jackson cleared his throat. "I mean, I know that you're thinking about coming after me when you're done your training."

_How the hell does he always know what I'm thinking? _"I wasn't thinking that at all."

He chuckled. "Oh yes you were. Don't deny it. I can read you like an open book. But just so you know, if you try that, Mandy and Cynthia are as good as dead."

I bit my lip. "You're a monster."

"No. I'm a realist." He walked over to the door and looked back at me. "I told you that you were an asset, I meant it." He looked at his watch. "I have to go now. I'll be back sometime. I don't exactly know when the training begins, or who will do the training, but you'll have fun." Then he winked at me and shut the door.

I looked at the bed and noticed that he left Mandy's picture there. I thought he had taken it with him. I ran to the door to thank him, but when I went to open the door, I realized it was locked. From the outside. Panic began to set in. _Where the hell am I supposed to get food from? _I banged on the door and to my surprise, Jackson actually opened it. "Miss me already?"

"I- um, I just wanted to say thank you for leaving the picture. It means a lot to me."

He nodded as he said, "Sure." Then as he was about to shut the door he stopped and looked at me. "I told you that you could bring one thing. I wouldn't take that away. Maybe that will remind you of what's at stake." I just nodded as he shut the door not really sure what to say. One moment he was cold and heartless and the next he was actually really sweet. I didn't get it.

I picked the picture up and placed it on the nightstand, so it could be the last thing I saw at night and the first thing I saw in the morning. I had a feeling it was going to be just what I needed.

I waited for my "training" to begin, but day in and day out all that happened was Jackson bringing me breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I kept asking him what the training consisted of, but he never told me. He just smiled and told me that I would have to wait and see. This made me worry. How could I stay here without going insane? _I can't._

I felt like I had been in this place for like a week, maybe more when Jackson came in. I turned and looked at him. He had no food in his hands. "What's going on?" I asked him.

He had his hands in his pants pockets and he closed the door. He shook his head and sat down on my bed, which had never happened before. He actually looked kind of distraught. I eyed him warily, not sure what to think or what was going through his head.

The fact that I had only seen his face for the whole time I've been here, was killing me. I had only talked to him and when he wasn't in my room, I had no one to talk. I had no books to read, no movies to watch, no tv to watch, no phone, and no radio. It was like I was completely isolated. It was almost like they wanted me to go insane. I wasn't allowing it. When I was alone, I allowed my thoughts to drift to my family and Cynthia and Mandy. "I wanted to be the one tell you."

He stopped talking and stared at me. I narrowed my eyes at him and shook my head. "Tell me what Jackson?" Hoping it had nothing to do with Mandy or Cynthia.

"That Zach has been compromised." _Compromised? As in dead? _I stared at Jackson with wide eyes. Then I blinked and looked at him normally. "I know you actually cared about him, so I thought I should be the one to tell you."

I scratched my head as if I was deep in thought. "I don't care."

I turned around and walked over to the closet to pick out one of the outfits that was left hanging there. I felt a hand on my shoulder and I jumped. "Of course you do. You loved him. I know what he did, but you can admit that you're upset that he's dead."

He turned me around to look at him and when I did, he could see that there were no tears in my eyes. "Like I said, I don't care. I hope he rots in hell. He shouldn't have killed my father."

We had never had a talk like this before. "Leese, honestly, you lived with the guy and you slept with him, in more ways than one. Do you want to talk about it?"

"No. I really don't care. I hope he rots in hell." I pronounced every word clearly this time, hoping that Jackson would get the clue and realize that I didn't want to talk about it. "There is however one thing I want to talk about."

"I can't talk about the training."

I groaned. "Why not?"

"It's not my place."

"Fine, can you at least tell me how Cynthia and Mandy are doing? I'm sure Cynthia is trying to get ahold of me."

"Oh she is. I told her you were otherwise engaged at the moment."

What the hell did he mean by that?

I froze at the mention of engaged. I had really hoped that he didn't tell her I was really engaged, because without Zach, that wouldn't have happened. It would look really strange to her- _If you ever get back home alive_- if I was engaged to another man when I left in a relationship with Zach. "Meaning?"

He patted me on my shoulder. "For someone who went to college, you sure act dumb sometimes." I definitely had a scowl on my face. "Relax Leese, I don't mean engaged, as in engaged to a man. That would be stupid. I mean engaged as in busy." He brought his lips close my ear. "And she didn't even know I wasn't Zach on the phone. I can pretend I'm him and tell her that you've died in a car accident or something."

That got me furious. I screamed something fierce and I started punching with both of my fists wildly. After a couple of minutes of fighting with him, he pinned me down on the floor and I started crying. "Why can't you just let me talk to her?" He shook his head and he was about to speak up, but I stopped him. "I told you I was going to do this stupid training thing. Why not let me still talk to them. If I can't talk to them, you've basically killed me anyways."

"Are you saying what I think you're saying?"

I turned my head to the left. "What do you think I'm saying?"

"That you'll kill yourself?"

I laughed. "If I can't talk to them? Yea, I might as well. I mean, you keep trying to keep me away from everyone I love. I'll have no reason to live."

He released my wrists and stood up. Then he walked out of the room without another word.

The next couple of days, some woman brought me my food. She never told me her name. The only thing she ever said to me was that Jackson was out of state and that he would be back shortly. I was nervous about that. Hoping he hadn't gone back to Florida to kill Cynthia or Mandy. I asked her where he went, but she wouldn't tell me. All she said was that he went out of state for work.

I was awoken the next by the aroma of scrambled eggs and hot chocolate. I sat up and looked over to see Jackson sitting there at the edge of my bed. I eyed him suspiciously considering he hadn't given me scrambled eggs since I've been here. "Morning, Leese. I hope you slept well."

I nodded as he handed me the plate of food. I looked at him then at the plate of food. It sure looked amazing, but there was something off about this. I could just tell. I took the plate of food and threw it against the wall. "What is this about Jackson?"

He smiled knowingly. "Congratulations. You just passed the first test. Had you eaten that food, you would be dead."

"Well, it's a relief that I didn't eat it then. I don't feel like dying just yet."

He narrowed his eyes at me. "That's not what you said five days ago."

Great, we were back to that again. I sighed and turned to the picture of Mandy. "If you had a niece or a nephew, you would understand."

"She's not even your real niece!" He yelled at me.

I had a feeling that he wasn't even mad about her not being my real niece, I think I had hit a sore spot. "Maybe not, but family isn't just blood you know. Family is people who have come into your life and who have never left." I looked over to him and his face was contorted into an angry face. "Do you have a niece or a nephew?"

"I have to go." Then he got up and walked out again. Yep. I definitely hit a nerve.

* * *

The next couple of days were weird. Jackson hadn't been around again. The only thing that I was fed for breakfast, lunch, and dinner was oatmeal. Which I refused to eat. I never had really liked oatmeal. When I was brought it _again_ for lunch I looked at the lady and sighed. "I already told whoever brought me this mushy crap for breakfast that I don't like it. Can I have something else please?" She didn't answer me. Instead, she set it down on the table and ran at me. Instinct kicked in and I side-stepped her. "What the hell are you doing?" I screamed at her. Then I realized that this must be some part of my training or something.

She growled and turned around and ran right back at me. She actually looked like a wild animal. I shook my head and waited just a few seconds. When she got close enough, I grabbed her and smashed her head into the wall. She fell to the floor instantly. I bit my lip and bent down next to her, realizing that she was knocked out un-conscious. I stood up and back up to the far wall. These people were going to kill me. I had just knocked out one of their own people. I sank to the floor when all of a sudden the door flew open and Jackson and some other guy came running inside. Jackson came over to me and the guy went to the lady. He picked her up and dragged her out.

Jackson smiled at me and picked me up by the shoulders as he began talking. "Leese, that was amazing. I told you that you would be an asset to us!"

"Jackson, I should have listened to you when you told us she would be before hand. Not when I saw the scars she left."

Jackson and I both looked at the door to see another female walking into my room. "Alice, I want you to meet Lisa Reisert." He turned back to me and smiled. "That was amazing Leese."

I shook my head. These people were insane. I had just knocked a woman out. I smashed her head into a wall and knocked her out cold. "You do realize that I just knocked someone out cold right?" I asked. My voice way higher than it should have been. I was losing my grip.

Jackson nodded proudly and Alice walked over to me. "Of course we realize this. We have a camera implanted in each room." A camera? I looked around to see it, but I couldn't."You won't find it, and you knocked out Nancy. She's one of our top agents." Then she turned to Jackson. "I think you should train her for the remainder of her time here. I can't have her knocking out everyone on my staff." She turned back to me. "You really should eat though darling. You lost some weight since being here."

Alice turned around and walked out of the room without another word and without waiting for a response from either Jackson or I. Jackson looked at me and then examined my body. "My god Leese, you have lost weight. What the hell have you been doing since I've been gone?"

I shrugged. "I just don't like oatmeal. That's all they've been trying to feed me. I asked for something different. They wouldn't give it to me, so I didn't eat."

I could see the anger flare in his eyes. "You can't do that! You have to eat what they give you. It helps you, trust me."

"They aren't mad that I knocked out one of their own people?" I asked him nervously.

He chuckled and walked over to the door. "No. If anything, they are more proud of you than anything. Don't sweat it Leese, like I said, you're cut out for this." Then he winked at me. "And I get to be your personal trainer now." He gave me a sly smirk. "No one's had the pleasure of that yet, so you are the lucky first one." He looked at his watch. "We begin tomorrow morning, so get some sleep." Then he walked out and shut the door. I closed my eyes and groaned.

How was I supposed to survive this training if I was going to have be this close to Jackson all the time? This just wasn't going to work for me.


	5. Chapter 5

I was woken up to Jackson shaking me violently. I groaned and pushed him away. He grabbed my shoulder and pulled me out of bed. After the shock of landing on the floor I looked up at him as he was kneeling over me. "Do you realize that you could be dead right now if you were being attacked?" I rolled my eyes at him being so melodramatic. I stood up and wiped my hands on sweatpants.

"Oh, I'm sorry you woke me up at," I looked at the clock on my nightstand. "four-thirty am!" I turned to him and gave him a dirty look. "What the hell is wrong with you?" I climbed back into bed and lay back down. "I never get out of bed at this time. In fact, I'm usually going to bed at this time."

Jackson grabbed my shoulders and lifted me back up. "I told you training starts this morning. Let's go." I pursed my lips and shook my head. This was ridiculous. Couldn't he wake up at a normal time like normal people? But of course, this was Jackson I was talking about. "Leese, get up before I make you get up. You don't want that. Besides, I have a surprise for you." I narrowed my eyes at him. His surprises were _never_ good for me. They usually included someone getting hurt. Seeing as how my father was already dead -courtesy of Zach- I had a feeling it had something to do with Cynthia or Mandy. I really didn't want to find out.

"What is it?" I asked him warily. He sat down on my bed and he nodded head to the right and I looked over. I couldn't believe I had missed it when I was thrown from my bed. I guess I was just so mad at him, that he was all I saw. "Where the hell did you get a punching bag, and when did you set it up without me knowing?"

He smirked. "I did that while you were sleeping. You should have heard me." He looked into my eyes. "If it wasn't me training you, you would have been beaten severly." He whispered. My eyes went wide and my mouth dropped open. He pushed it closed with his index finger. "Relax Leese, I'm the one training you, and you'll be fine." He stood up and walked over to the punching bag. "First, we'll start with the punching bag. Teach you the basics. Then we'll start with us sparing."

I stopped breathing. Jackson and I sparing. Oh man. I didn't see that ending well for me at all. I started coughing trying to catch my breath. He ran over to me, rubbing my back. I flinched and shrugged away from him. "Sparing?" I said between gasps of air when I had remembered to breath.

He looked confused. Like maybe I'd gone stupid. "Yes, Leese. That's what you do when you train. You spar with a partner. So you can get stronger." I shook my head. "Look, I know you probably don't want to be anywhere near me, but that's the only option you have. Deal with it." He walked away after realizing that I was fine. "After you work-out for a little while, you can have breakfast. I'll even have them make you scrambled eggs."

I scoffed at him. "I wouldn't trust them. Last time they were poisoned."

"Trust me, that was the one and only time that your food will be poisoned. It won't happen again." I rolled my eyes at him. "Just get out of bed and get over here." I took the blankets off of me and put my slippers on. I walked over to the punching bag and Jackson shook his finger at me. "Unless you want to fall on your ass, I would take those off." He said pointing at my slippers.

I sighed as I smiled mockingly and slipped them off. I put my hair in a low ponytail as Jackson went behind the punching bag and held it still for me. Shaking my head, I balled my right hand into a fist and then my left. I stood like how I had seen boxers stand on tv. Jackson took one look at me and started laughing. I stood up straight and threw my hands out to the side. "What?" I asked him with an attitude. I didn't even want to be doing this, but him laughing at me, made me hate this even more.

He shrugged. "Nothing." Then he smirked.

Pursing my lips, I walked back over to my bed. "There's obviously something. So until you want to tell me, I'm going to go back to bed."

He laughed again. "I was just thinking how sexy you looked standing like that."

That was ridiculous. Walking back over to him, I looked at him incredulously. "You do realize how insane that sounds right?" I was sure he wasn't even supposed to talk to me like that. Especially since he was training me himself, and the fact that I was now an "employee" of the agency. He shook his head by way of answer. "I just woke up, I haven't showered, I'm in sweatpants and a tanktop, my hair is a mess, and I haven't had any sun in I don't even know how long!"

"And your point is?"

"That is my point." I looked down at my fingers examining them for no apparent reason except to not look at Jackson. "I want to talk to Cynthia and see her. Mandy also."

He sighed. "You know, if you just went through with the training, the faster we could get it over with and the faster you could get home and get back to them and get to work." My eyes widened. Why hadn't he told me this before? "Is that enough motivation for you?"

It was, but I wasn't really ready to fight or spar or anything with him. Not with my conflicted feelings for him. "Of course." Then a picture of Zach entered my mind. I bit my lip. "What am I going to tell them about Zach?"

Jackson walked around from the back of the punching bag and came over to me putting his hands on my shoulders. "I already had a plan for that." I looked at him questioningly."Oh, you want to know the plan?" I rolled my eyes. "You'll have to make it through this mornings work-out to find out." Then he smirked at me and walked back behind the punching bag.

* * *

After working on the punching bag for what seemed like hours, and Jackson telling me that I was perfecting my punches, I was drenched in sweat. He wasn't ready to let me go take a shower no matter how much I begged. He wanted me to start sparring with him right then and there. I was appalled. I absolutely could not spar with him with me covered in sweat and him looking so, so, devine. It wasn't fair to me. I told him I would be ready after a quick shower, but his response was, "If you were working out at home and someone broke in, you wouldn't have time to take a shower." In that aspect he was right, but he hadn't broken in, and this wasn't my home. Technically. Then he threw in, "If you want to get home to Cynthia and Mandy, I would take advantage of all the time I'm giving you, because I'm leaving tomorrow for a week and you won't have any training all that time." I groaned and agreed to spar with him.

Jackson didn't go easy on me, just as I didn't go easy on him. In the end of our spar session, I ended up straddeling him about to punch him, but he rolled me over onto the floor crushing his chest to mine. I tried to push him off, but my arms hurt from too much punching of the punching bag. Just as I was about to escape his grasp, Jackson leaned down and kissed me. He had caught me so off-guard that I didn't respond. He sat up and patted the side of my face. "I told you that you were sexy like this."

I licked my lips then bit my bottom one as I tried to process all of this. "Are you allowed to do that?" I asked as I was shaking my head, trying to get the kiss out of my head.

He shrugged. "I can do whatever I want."

I nodded. "That's good to know." My stomach started rumbling. "Do you think maybe I could get something to eat soon? I'm kind of hungry and we've been doing this for god only knows how long."

Jackson looked at his watch. "It's nine-fourty five." He stood up. "While I go take a shower, you take one and I'll bring you those scrambled eggs. Anything else you want with them?"

I stood up and looked at him with worried eyes. "I'm not taking a shower with you!"

He started laughing. "Of course not. I have my own room."

I nodded, relieved. "Can I have orange juice with those eggs? I've been craving it for a while now." I felt like a child who was begging for something I knew I probably wasn't going to get.

Jackson walked over to the door and looked at me. "Sure." Before he walked out, he winked at me. He was such a complicated person.

Walking to the bathroom, I heard the door open. "What did you forget? To attack me from behind? Cause I'm pretty sure we went over that Jackson." I turned around to find Alice standing there. I definitely didn't think it was a good thing that she was in my room. "Hello Alice. Is something wrong?"

She walked over to me and crossed her arms in front of me. The way she was standing was very intimidating. I could see why she was the boss. I took a deep breath and waited for her to talk. "That was a very intense work-out session you had with Jackson." I just stared at her wondering what she was getting to. "You should probably be careful what you do."

"What are you talking about?"

She gave me a smile, but it wasn't friendly. "As I said yesterday, there's a camera in here. We can see everything. I saw that little kiss that Jackson planted on you."

I swallowed and kept staring at her. "As you may have also seen then, I didn't reciprocate it. That was all him."

She laughed and tapped the top of my head like I was a dog. I was seriously hoping they weren't going to act like I was one of their lap dogs. I wasn't going to be. "I did notice that, but I just had to let you know that Jackson is mine."

Oh my, I hadn't anticipated that. "Does he know that?" I shouldn't have been questioning her, but I felt like after what Jackson had told me, he didn't know this.

Alice shook her head. "No, but he will." She turned away but quickly turned back. "And don't you dare tell him. If you do, you will be dead faster than you can blink. Then Jackson will follow suit. Do you understand?"

I decided to play dumb about my feelings for him, it's not like she knew about them. "What makes you think I care what happens to him?"

She scoffed at me. "I could tell by your eyes that you have some sort of feelings for him my dear. So just do the training and get out of here. Don't make me kill you before I need to use you." She smiled again and then she was gone.

Honestly, this agency was going to kill me before I left. Either from insanity or from a member of the agency. I shook my head as I started walking into the bathroom but Jackson's voice stopped me. "Why haven't you already showered."

I let my head fall and I groaned. Wasn't he supposed to be taking a shower and having breakfast made? "Because I had a visitor."

Turning around I saw that he was freshly showered and looking just as good as the night in the motel. I turned back around and caught my breath then turned back around. _Why did he take such insanely short showers? _I saw that he had two plates of scrambled eggs and two glasses of orange juice. This was a joke right? We weren't spending all day together? He made a gesture for me to come sit down and eat. I walked over and sat down next to him and started digging into my food. "So, who was the visitor?"

I raised my eyes at him. I couldn't exactly tell him the whole truth, but I could tell him a half truth. "Alice."

He looked interested and I was not interested in telling him anything. Not if it meant getting myself killed. I at least wanted to live to get married and have kids of my own. If that would even happen now. "What did she want?" Jackson asked as he took a bite of his eggs.

"To let me know that we that we had an intense work-out session."

He didn't seem to believe me. "Is that all?" I nodded. "Alice doesn't go the trainee's rooms and let them know that they had an intense work-out session. Something else must have come up."

I took a sip of my orange juice then put the cup down. Shook my head and looked at him. "Nope. Nothing else."

Jackson put his hand on top of mine. "Is there something you're not telling me?"

I put my fork down and looked him in the eyes. "No Jackson. There is not something I'm not telling you." _There are a few things I'm not telling you._ I felt horrible lying to him. "So when you get back, I guess we'll be training every day?"

He nodded. "Unless you choose not to, but you know the consequences of that." I did know the consequences. I didn't like them and I wouldn't accept them so I would go through with the training.

I picked my fork back up and started eating again. "So um, how come I wasn't screaming like that woman I heard the first day I arrived here?"

Jackson gave me a confused expression, but then his face softened as he remembered. "Oh, that's because she wasn't cut out for it." He patted my hand. "You don't have to listen to her anymore. She's not here."

"Where is she?"

"Gone."

That didn't sound very good. It sounded very final. He hadn't even hesitated when he answered. I would have expected a pause or something, but nope. Just, _gone ._"Gone where?" I knew I was pushing it, but I wanted to know she was at least okay.

Jackson pinched the bridge of his nose. "Leese, she's gone. She was disposed of." My eyes opened wide. This could very well be my fate if I can't handle the training anymore. "Leese, would you relax. If you couldn't handle it, you would have been disposed of already. Trust me, I know." Jackson always knew what I was thinking and it was frustrating. "After you eat, I have a surprise for you."

"I really don't like your surprises. Most of the time, they aren't very good ones."

He laughed. "I know. But this one is."

I nodded. "So, I survived the work out. What's the plan for telling Cynthia about Zach?"

Jackson crossed his arms over his chest. "I'm going to call her and tell her that I'm going to Pennsylvania to be with you." Of course when he said he was calling her and telling her that _he _was going to Pennsylvania to be with me, he meant he was calling as Zach as he had before. "When your training is over and you're about to go home, you can call her and tell her that you two were in a car accident."

I thought about this for a moment. This absolutely could not work. "Jackson, that can't work. You told me a week ago that he was dead. They would want a body."

He nodded. "Yes, I did. And there will be a body. It will be his. He has been compromised. He just hasn't been killed yet. He will be in the car with you when you get hit, you just have to make sure you don't get hurt to much. Do you understand me?"

He was crazy! He actually thought that I could control how badly I got injured in a motor vehicle accident. "Just how will I do that?"

He smiled. "Because it won't actually be you in the car." I shook my head as I took the last bite of my eggs. He had already known that I wouldn't be in the car, so why would he even make it seem like I had any control over the car. The thought of seeing Zach again after being told that he was dead was un-settling. I didn't want to see him. Seeing him might open some of the old feelings I had for him and I didn't want that. I jumped when I realized that Jackson had started speaking. He usually had a way of taking me out of my revelry. "Okay, seeing as how you're done your eggs, go jump in the shower. I want to give you your surprise, but you have to hurry up and shower." I nodded as I got up and walked over to the bathroom and this time no one interrupted me, thankfully.

* * *

When I got out of the bathroom, Jackson was sitting on the edge of my bed talking on the phone. He sounded angry. He turned around and held up a finger to me indicating that he would be off the phone in a minute. I just nodded and started brushing my hair. When I was done, I put it in a braid. Once he shut his phone off, I walked over to him and saw that he was angry. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

I could tell he was lying, especially because he gave me an attitude. "Jackson, you can tell me. I mean, unless it's some top secret mission, then I understand."

I actually got him to smile. Not that I had been meaning to, but when I had, I smiled back. He patted my bed for me to sit by him, which I did. I thought back to what to Alice said and I instantly stood up. "What's wrong with you?" He countered.

I bit my lip. "Nothing, I just feel like standing. That's all." I walked over to the corner of the room and put my slippers on. "So, are you going to tell me what's wrong with you?"

Jackson sighed and fell back on my bed. "I guess I should tell you because it does involve you." I had a strong feeling that he was going to tell me that he was being taken away as my trainer. Was Alice really that jealous? I had told her that Jackson meant nothing to me. Even though I had lied, but that wasn't the point. "I'm not going away for the week. In fact I'm not going away at all. Alice wants me to train you everyday almost all day and have you ready by next week so we can work on an assignment together." Something in his eyes changed drastically. "I had plans with that money, so she's lucky that I actually like you. If I didn't, I would snap your neck in training."

My mouth dropped open. "Excuse me?" I practically screamed. "Don't you work alone?" Then I thought about the last sentence he had spoken. "You should probably watch what you say, considering there's a camera in here and she can hear everything you say and see everything you do."

Jackson got off of my bed and walked over to me, rubbing my arms. "Usually. And don't worry about her, she knows how I am."

"I'm not going to be ready for that! Especially to be working with someone of your level. At least not yet." Alice was leading me into a situation where I would get killed. I was definitely sure of that.

"Don't worry, I won't let anything happen to you."

I scoffed at him. He seriously knew almost everything I was thinking. It was just weird. "How can you be so sure."

He gave me a look, as if to ask me if I was dumb. "Have I let anything happen to you yet?"

I opened my eyes wide. I thought back to the morning we got off of the red eye and we were at my dad's house. He had come after me with a knife and then a gun. "You tried to kill me."

A smirk came across his lips. "Don't piss me off and that wouldn't happen."

I cocked my head to the side. "You were going to kill a good person and then my father."

He shrugged. "It's a part of my job Leese. I do what I'm told. It pays well, as you'll see." He winked at me. "Trust me. You'll have to stay at the hotel for a couple of weeks, but then you will have to quit, because when you go on these jobs, you will be gone for a while and they will start to wonder where you are."

I turned around and rolled my eyes. "Yea, if I make it through this one." I muttered.

"Excuse me?"

I shook my head. "I said, I just want some sun." Then I smiled reassuringly.

He stood in front of me and smiled. "That's good, because that's part of the surprise I have for you. We're going for a walk." I actually felt like a dog when he pulled rope from his gym bag that was in the corner of my room and he tied it around my wrists. "Just so you don't run away."

"Like I could. I have no idea where I am." I said with an attitude. "Aside from the fact that I'm in Arizona."

Jackson gave me the coldest eyes. "If you would prefer, I could just leave you locked inside here all day." I instantly shook my head. "I was thinking that we could have a couple of spar sessions outside, but only if you promise to behave yourself. We have trained personel who know how to find you."

"Then why are my hands being tied together?"

"Alice's idea." He shrugged. "She wants to know if you will behave. If you do, then we can continue the sparring outside. But only if you promise to be a good girl." I nodded as he lead me out of the room. I had a feeling this wasn't going to be a good thing for me. Alice had it out for me, and I knew why, I just had to find a way to tell Jackson. But how?

* * *

Once we were outside, I looked around at the outside and took it all in. The grass, trees, clouds, and sun. I honestly never thought I would see it again. Smiling I sat down on the grass and ran my hand through the grass. I inhaled the air like I had never breathed it in before. Finally I laid back and stared up at the sky. It was stupid, even childish, but I watched the clouds go by. "Duck."

Jackson literally jumped down on top of me and shielded his head. I started laughing. He looked around and then looked into my eyes. "What's so funny?"

"You."

"How so? You said duck, so I did."

This only made me laugh even more. By the time I could actually breath again, he was fuming. His face was so red. I immediatly stopped smiling and bit my lip. "I'm sorry. I only said duck because I was looking at the clouds and one of them was in the shape of a duck."

He narrowed his eyes. "Seriously?" I nodded and he started laughing which caused me to start laughing again. When he finished laughing, he laid down next to me in the grass. "Any more shapes up there in the clouds?"

I looked up and smiled as I saw one. I knew he was going to get a kick out of this one. "Yep."

"What do you see?"

I turned my face to his. "Where's the fun in that Jackson? Why don't you look and tell me what you see?"

I didn't turn my face away from his until he turn his face up to the sky. Hoping the cloud was still there and in the form that I saw, I waited for him to speak. Instead, he burst out laughing. "You've got to be kidding me. That's a joke right?"

Looking up at the clouds, I noticed it was still there. Smiling I asked, "What is it?"

He turned his head to me. "A gun." I nodded. He propped himself up on his elbow. "You know, I can't believe you shot me five years ago. I didn't think you had the guts to do it." Why was he going down memory lane now? On second thought, why was he bringing up painful memories? "You are so much more beautiful when you are fighting. Especially when you have a gun in your hand or when you headbutt someone." He chuckled. "That comes in handy doesn't it?"

Except for the whole him calling me beautiful thing, he kind of took the fun of being outside away. I turned away and looked back up at the sky. I was getting uncomfortable with this conversation. Was there a way to answer him without really making Alice mad. I cleared my throat. "Yea, it does. It sure sent you flying down the stairs." _Probably shouldn't have said that!_ I chastised myself.

"Along with that shoe that you kicked into my thigh. That hurt like a bitch." He smirk. "You sure know how to utilize different objects as weapons."

That was quite a compliment. I nodded. He wasn't as angry about my comment as he probably should have been. "Thanks." I looked over at him. "Don't forget that." Then I looked back up at the sky. "Winnie the pooh."

"Are you insane?"

"No. You know that I make objects such as pens, vases, and high heels weapons. I'm just saying don't forget it."

"I'm talking about that cloud, it doesn't look like Winnie the pooh. It looks like, well I don't know what it looks like, but it definitely doesn't look like Winnie the pooh."

"When was the last time you watched Winnie the pooh?" I questioned him.

He thought about it for a couple of minutes. "I guess I must have been entering my teen years before-" Then he abruptly stopped talking.

"Then you probably don't remember what he looks like. I just watched it the night before you came back into my life. I watched it with Mandy." I turned to him. "So why didn't you finish that sentence?" Most likely I was about to get a hand around my throat or dragged back to my room and Jackson stalking off in a bad mood.

Instead, he looked at my hands and un-tied the ropes. "What are you doing? Alice is going to get mad!" I said frantically.

He stopped and looked into my eyes. I don't know what he saw, but if he looked deep enough, he would see fear. Which is probably exactly what he saw considering he could read me like a book. "What did she say to you?"

I bit my lip as I shook my head. "Nothing."

"Bullshit." He pulled me up and held my hand in his tightly. Now he was getting mad. "Tell me. Before I go find out myself." When I wouldn't say a word, Jackson stood up walking back towards the bulding. I screamed for him to come back and luckily he did. He sat back down next to me. "Tell me. I'm not fucking around anymore."

I sighed. "If I tell you, I'm dead." I whispered.

He bent his head down to my face. "What the fuck did you just say?"

Now he was mad, I was going to be dead within in a couple of minutes, and so wasn't Jackson. Why couldn't my life be simple? It used to be simple. Before I ever met Jackson. Before the rape. Before my parents divorce. Before I was an adult. I used to think being a teenager was difficult? This was way worse. I would take being a teenager again over this any day. Of course, they do say that everything happens for a reason. "I said, if I tell you, I'm dead, and then so aren't you."

"Why? What would be so bad that Alice would want to kill you for if you told me?"

I laughed. "You mean, you really don't know?" He shook his head. "Jackson, I really can't tell you. I just don't feel like dying yet. I'm sorry."

He grabbed my hand and held it in his. "Leese, I am not going to let anyone hurt you." I looked into his eyes and I believed him, but I couldn't trust Alice. "Would please just trust me?"

"I trust you." That was the first time I had ever said those words out loud.

"Then tell me. I'll protect you."

Sighing I decided if I didn't tell him he would just get more upset and he would probably go right up to Alice and talk to her and then he'd go to my room after she didn't tell him anything and I'd be dead. "She said that you're hers." He started to stand up, but I stopped him by pulling his arm. "Wait, she said no one else can have you but her, and if I told you then she was going to kill me then you." I bit my lip and pulled him closer to me. "This is why when you wanted me to sit by you on the bed, I got back up and stood up."

When I looked at him, he was fuming again. He was definitely not happy and I couldn't really blame him. My only concerns now though, were him going after Alice and if there were any cameras outside. "Lisa, why didn't you tell me before this?"

I narrowed my eyes and shook my head. Was he dumb? Was he deaf? I had just told him what she told me. Honestly, I didn't even feel like repeating it, but I knew I had to. "Possibly because I didn't want to die. She told me that she would kill me if I told you." Jackson stood up and grabbed my hand, helping me up. Before we walked anywhere, he wrapped the rope around my hands again. "Seriously? Is this necessary? I think we established that I wasn't going anywhere." He just nodded as we started walking.

I literally felt like a dog. I pursed my lips and kept my eyes down at the ground. I didn't want to look at him. Why give him the satisfaction of seeing me upset? All of a sudden, I bumped into Jackson, and I noticed that we were in the middle of a couple of trees. How had I not noticed us walking through the trees? Just as I was about to ask him what he was he was doing, he started tying the other end of the rope to a branch in the tree. "Leese, I'm sorry about this, but you have to hang tight while I go take care of this."

"Jackson-"

"No. You need to stay here. I'll be back."

I was about to say something else, but he kissed me and then ran off leaving me alone in the trees wondering if I was going to be killed. I didn't even know if there were any cameras outside the building, but based on Jackson's reaction, I was assuming not. Looking up, I tried to grab the knot he tied, but I couldn't reach it. I tried to jump up to the branch, but that didn't work either. Great, I was stuck here like a sitting duck.

* * *

**I don't really have any excuses for not uploading this chapter sooner, except for, No internet for a while.. :) But I got to access some, so here is the new chapter! You all got a different softer side of Jackson in this chapter! Did you like it? Let me know!**


	6. Chapter 6

_**No internet is my ONLY excuse for not updating this sooner! I sincerly apologize for that! Thanks to everyone who has read this story and stayed with it. I will continue to write it, because as you can see, it's clearly not finished yet! Lol. I will NEVER abondon my fan fics. When I haven't updated, it usually means one of three things. **_

_**1. I'm insanely sick, which happens a lot. **_

_**2. I have no internet. :( Hopefully I'll have it soon!**_

_**3. Writers block. Which happens to be the thing I hate most! **_

_**Luckily today, I'm doing laundry and they allow access to the internet! WOO HOO! So this is the next chapter for My Nightmare. Enjoy! ;)**_

* * *

It was getting late. I had watched the sun set, which was pretty and I was amused by it because I hadn't seen one in so long. I didn't like being out in the trees at night. It was getting cold and clouds were rolling in. I at least got to get a glimpse of some stars before the clouds covered them. Sighing, I leaned my back against the tree. I was almost asleep when someone touched my shoulder. "Jackson, thank god you're back! My arms hurt and I'm tired." Just as I turned to look at him, I realized it wasn't him. "Who are you?"

This guy smiled and untied the rope from the tree. "I'm here to help you." Something in his voice made me doubt that. "Come on." He pulled me by the rope and brought me back towards the building.

"Who are you?"

"I just told you."

I shook my head. He wasn't understanding me. "I mean, I want a name!"

He stopped and pulled the rope so that I was standing right in front of him. "You don't need to know that."

"Of course I do." I figured I shouldn't trust this guy. He didn't seem like someone I could trust. When he leaned in to say something else, I punched him with my hands. Then I kicked him and he fell. I instantly ran back into the trees, but he caught up with me and pulled on the rope, making me fall to ground. He walked over to me like he was a hawk stalking their prey.

"You shouldn't have done that sweetheart. Your death was going to be painless, but now it won't be." He smiled and kneeled down next to me and punched me in the face. "What are you going to do now? Jackson can't help you, he's dead. I'm the only one who has the authority to go near you now. So no one can save you." He picked me up off of the ground and held me against a tree. "I'm going to lock you in a room and torture you for a couple of weeks." He cmiled again. "How does that sound?"

"Like you're insane. I won't allow it!" Just as he was about to hit me again, he screamed out in pain and then fell to the ground. I looked at him, and there was an arrow in his back. I looked to see where it had come from, and there was Jackson standing next to the tree that he had tied me to. "Jackson?" He nodded. "He told me you were dead." I started crying as I walked over to him. Again, I was pulled to the ground. Apparently Mr. No Name was still alive.

When I turned around to look at him, he jumped on top of me and held a knife to my throat. I wanted to scream, but I didn't. Standing my ground and acting brave was the best I could do for now. I didn't want to be a coward or a victim. "Jackson, if I were you, I'd go back inside and talk to Alice. She wants to talk to you. Privately." He finished the sentence with laughter.

"Well Steve, that would be rather impossible." So Mr. No Name's name was Steve. I wondered what he meant by that, but I had my suspicions. I imagined him going into the office and slicing her throat. Possibly killing everyone else in sight. But apparently, my daydream is NOT what happened. I let my head relax along with my body. It seemed like I was going to be on the ground for a while. "Alice is a little pre-occupied."

"What are you talking about? She has no meetings today."

Jackson smiled and held the bow in his hand and an arrow aimed at Steve's head. "I incapacited her. She's knocked out cold and she knows that I'm not taking any shit from anyone. So you better let Lisa go, and go check on her." Jackson looked at his watch. "By the way, she only has about two minutes left to live."

What the hell did he do to her?

I asked myself, and in reality, Steve asked him the same question. I wanted to know the answer, but knew that he could do anything he wanted. He was a professional murderer. "I knocked her out and then I-" He stopped and laughed. "Then I taped a plastic bag over her head."

"Someone else will find her. I'm sure of it." Steve said as he started digging the knife into my throat.

Jackson nodded. "You would think that, wouldn't you? But I had her send everyone home early tonight." He moved his hand flippantly through the air. "I made up an excuse about needing to talk to her in private, and that I didn't want anyone else here when I talked to her. So she sent everyone home. Except apparently for you."

The knife left my throat and Steve jumped off of me, then charged at Jackson with the knife held in front of him. Before Steve got to Jackson, Jackson jumped out of the way and the knife Steve was carrying got stuck in the tree that he slammed into. Jackson threw the bow and arrow to the side, and ran at Steve punching him in the back of the head. When Steve turned back around, they began to really go at it. The fight was brutal. Just when I thought it was over, it began again. I couldn't help but stand there and watch. It was fascinating. Eventually Jackson knocked Steve out and he grabbed the knife from the tree, plunging it into Steve's chest.

After he had done that, he ran to me grabbing me by my face. "You're okay, right? He didn't hurt you?" I shook my head. He lifted my head and looked at my neck. "You're bleeding." He turned to look at Steve then back to me. "He's lucky he's fucking dead! If I had known he cut you open, I would have made his death a hell of a lot more painful!"

Jackson wrapped his arms around me and then pulled away. "What's wrong? You don't want to hug me?" He looked hurt.

I held my hands up to him. "I couldn't exactly hug you back. I'm a little tied up right about now." He laughed and untied my hands. "Thank you." I grabbed his face and pulled him for a kiss. He definitely earned it.

"What do you say, we get you home?"

Jackson just really said that he was bringing me home? "Home as in?"

He laughed. "I mean home home. To Miami." His smile fell and so did his head. "I can't keep you against your will anymore Lisa. I actually care to much about you to do that." What was he saying? Was he leaving me now that we found each other again? I couldn't let this happen. Just as I was about to fight him on this, he continued. "Lisa, it's better for you if you don't have anything to do with me." He paused for a minute. "It's better for both of us actually."

"No. No it's not! You can't just come into my life again, and make me fall for you all over again, and then disappear! I can't let that happen again." I was going to fight for what I wanted this time. I wanted Jackson. There was no real rationilaztion for it, but I did. My heart called out for him, and for once I wanted to go with what my heart wanted. Not what my head told me to do.

"Lisa, we can't be-" Then he fell to the ground flipping around like a fish, until he finally stopped and looked like he wasd dead. I screamed and fell to his side. I couldn't lose him now. Not after that speech I just gave him.

"Don't worry. He's not dead." At the sound of her voice, I jumped back up and protectively stood in front of Jackson. "I just had him put momentarliy out of service. I suppose he told you what he did to me? Well, one of my _employees_ came back in to ask me a question, and he saved me. Just in the knick of time." She walked towards me and stared at Jackson lying still on the ground. "Take him to a room and lock him in. When you are done, come see me."

Two guys came out from behind Alice and grabbed Jackson dragging him back towards the building that I had been held captive in. I ran after the two men trying to get them to stop, but two sets of arms grabbed me and stopped me in my place. "Lisa dear, we are not done with your training yet. Nor am I finished with talking to you about your little indiscretion with Jackson tonight." She walked to stand in front of me. "I do believe I told you that Jackson was mine. Did I not?" I didn't answer her. There was no reason for it. "Didn't I tell you that?" She screamed as she smacked me in the face.

"Yes! Why do you think I tried so hard to stay away from him? You surely saw that on your little video tapes, didn't you?"

She nodded. "You're right. I did." She turned around and started walking to the building. "Throw her into her room. I want her alive, so that Jackson can watch me kill her."


	7. Chapter 7

**I FINALLY have internet back! So excited about that! So here's chapter 7. :)**

**I actually started writing my own short story. I put it on here, but it was deleted. I didn't realize you couldn't put original works of fiction on here, so it's on FictionPress if you want to read it! And it's under the same pen name. :) ENJOY!**

* * *

When I woke up the next morning, I had hoped the night before was just a dream. When I sat up, I was unfortunately brought down to reality. Instantly I gasped at seeing Jackson tied to the only chair in my room. Looking around to see if anyone else was in the room, I cautiously walked over to Jackson to hopefully untie him. Once I was close enough to him, I noticed all the bruises and cuts on his face. "Jackson, what the hell happened to you?"

I tried to reach for his face, but he pulled his face away. Tears welled up in my eyes. Why were they doing this to him? He didn't deserve it. If this was how he was going to be treated because of me, I would do something about it. I know it sounds absurd, but I had really fallen for Jackson by this time. How could I let him get beaten to death because of me. Just then, my door opened. There was Alice with two of her bodyguards flanking her. Instantly I stood up. "It's nice to see you awake. Now we can get down to business." She walked closer to me, sending her bodyguards over to Jackson. "While he's still conscious and alive, I'm going to have him watch me torture you and then kill you. Slowly." She stated with such malice. "You would have been a lovely asset to our Agency, but you had to become problematic."

"You're going to kill Jackson because of me?" I blurted out without thinking.

Alice looked at me like I was stupid, and that this whole situation was quite obvious. Like I should know what was going to happen. "Of course. I told you to stay away. You didn't listen. This is the price you both will pay."

Jackson started fidgeting around in the chair. Tryiing to get out of his restraints. "So then kill me. Not him. I'm willing to die, as long as you let him go!" I hadn't felt this brave, since the day I met Jackson on the plane. I shook those thoughts away. There was no need to be remembering them at this time. That was the past and this was now. I should have died then, so really, I was lucky to even still be alive. So giving up my life for him was alright to me. It didn't bother me at all.

Alice laughed and walked over to Jackson kneeling down in front of him. "Regardless if you give your life for his, he still has to pay the price for falling for the mark. That's not allowed in this business."

"I wasn't a mark when he fell for me! I was locked in this stupid room! He was training me to become your newest killing machine." Of course, I knew that Jackson and I had felt something right away, but she definitely didn't have to know that. Especially if she didn't already know.

"I know for a fact that he had fallen for you during the time he spent following you. With you staying up all night watching your old movies and eating scrambled eggs at three in the morning. Do you really think I didn't have him followed? I make sure my work is thoroughly done." She turned to face me. "If your work isn't thoroughly done, you have problems. Unfortunately, you became a problem _after_ the fact." She turned back to Jackson and grabbed his face. "See, Jackson here has fallen for a mark before, but he let his job win over. He disposed of her as soon as the mission was over. You're the first one he has actually let get the best of him. It's sad really. Our best employee being bested by an idiotic, stupid, ugly, girl."

The fact that she called me ugly was not a problem. I've been called that before. The problem I had, was being called idiotic and stupid. "If I'm so stupid and idiotic, how the hell did I defeat Jackson and get away? Stupid and idiotic girls can't do such things." I said with a smile on my face. I knew that it would tick her off, which is exactly why I did it. Luckily, she rose to her feet and walked over to me. I narrowed my eyes and smirked at her. Not something I would usually do, but the opportunity presented itself, so I did it. Of course, it wasn't such a good idea, because she smacked me across the face.

"How dare you talk to me like that!"

This was just too much fun. I don't know if it was me being locked in this room for so long, or the fact that I was spending too much time with Jackson, but I just couldn't help myself with my next sentence. "Would you prefer that I talk to you like a little girl? Because that's what you're acting like. You do realize that right? You're acting like a jealous little school girl. And I'm talking about a school girl who doesn't even have a chance with the guy she's obsessed with." I could see the anger flaring in her eyes, but I didn't care. Maybe I was asking for a death wish, but at this point I didn't care. "You do realize he doesn't want you." I leaned in close to her ear and whispered, "He wants me."

That's when she hit me again, and this time I hit back. I wasn't afraid of anything anymore. I was going to die anyways, so I was going to go out with a fight. A bang. She probably shouldn't have had me trained as a killer. As we were fighting, basically her slapping me, and me punching her, I could hear Jackson trying to get over to us. He was screaming things I couldn't hear because I was too busy rearranging Alice's face. Once I got Alice onto the floor and was beating her unconsious, her bodyguards came over and dragged me off of her and over to my bed and tied my hands to the bed. If I wasn't tied down, I was certain I was going to kill her. But now that I was tied down, I was certain that I was going to die. She was going to take the cowards way out and kill me while I couldn't fight back.

She walked over to me with the help of her bodyguards and stood over my heavy breathing chest. "I will get you back for this. I might not want to kill you anymore, but only because your skills are far better than I thought they were." She turned to look at Jackson. "That doesn't mean that I won't kill him though." She smirked then laughed. "I'll give you a couple of hours to calm down and I'll even let him stay in here so you two can have a final chat." She finally looked up at the camera. "I'll even turn the camera off and the microphones so you can talk in private." I went to say something to her, but she covered my mouth with her hand. "I know what you're thinking. 'Why would she leave us alone in here with no monitoring us?' The answer is simple. You're both bound to the very spots you're in and I know that you won't get out of them. We made sure of it."

Alice laughed as she walked out with her bodyguards in tow.

About five minutes after Alice left, Jackson flipped out. "Lisa! What the fuck do you think you were doing?" He only called me Lisa when he was extremely mad. "You could have gotten yourself killed!"

Why the hell was he getting mad at me? I was only defending myself. "Excuse me?" I lifted myself up and sat up. "How dare you snap at me, _Jack._ I was defending myself. She hit me first. And more than once may I add!"

"Do you see what you've done? You just signed my death certificate."

This was not the turn of events I wanted. I wanted him to tell me he was proud of my amazing fighting skills, but instead he was completely pissed off. "Okay Jackson, next time I'll just let her kill me. How does that sound? I mean, it would solve all of your problems wouldn't it? You wouldn't have me around and you could have your precious job back." For some stupid reason, tears started forming in my eyes. "Is that what you want? If it is, let me know! I'll tell her when she gets back in here that she wins and you can both run off into the sunset together."

I refused to let him see me cry again. Especially when he was the reason for my tears yet again. "Leese, you know that's not what I want. But there is no us. You know there never could be an us." That probably hurt more than it should have. I looked down at the floor and closed my eyes, willing myself not to cry about it. He was just a guy. He was definitely not worth my tears. Not after that. "Leese, look at me." I definitely didn't. I looked everywhere but at him. If I did, I was sure the tears would come out. "Leese, I'm not the man for you. my lifestyle doesn't suit you."

This time I shot my head up and stared into his eyes. "Then why the fuck did you bring me here?" I was screaming, but it didn't matter anymore. He was just making excuses. "Weren't you the one who said the day that you grabbed me that 'The agency could use someone like me'?" He was silent. "Exactly. Your lifestyle has apparently become mine. By force. By you, Zach, and Alice."

He still sat there as quiet as a mouse. It was unbelievable that I was in this position. I had watched my father die and now I was going to have to watch Jackson die? No. I couldn't do it. I wouldn't do it. In the heat of the moment, I started rubbing my wrists against the ropes, I thought that maybe if I rubbed against them enough, they would start to wear down. Blood started dripping down my wrists. Jackson started yelling at me. I didn't care what he had to say anymore. He really didn't care about me. He only cared about himself. "Lisa, stop." He said in a calm voice. "Please stop? You're going to bleed out."

I laughed at him. "Are you serious right now? I don't fucking care. I'm not going to sit here and watch them kill the man I've sadly fallen in love with. I'm going to get out of here. One way or another."

"Fallen in love with?"

I stopped for a minute and stared at him. "God Jackson! How stupid are you? I was falling for you the night of the red eye. Why do you think I actually fought her? It was for you." I instantly went back to rubbing my wrists.

The rope on my right wrist fell off. Using my right hand, I untied the left one. Luckily, the rope was thin rope, or else I don't think it would have worked so well. Jackson was wrong about bleeding out, but I was bleeding a lot. I ran to the bathroom and cleaned up, hoping that Alice really had turned the camera and microphone off. If not, things would get very messy. "Leese?"

I heard Jackson call me and I walked out of the bathroom. Leaning on the wall of the of the bathroom entrance, I stared at him with my arms folded over my chest. "Yes Jackson?"

"Are you going to let me out?"

I smiled. "I was thinking you could stay there considering you don't care about anything but yourself."


	8. Chapter 8

**This is the LAST chapter of this story.. BUT there MIGHT be a sequel. I'll have to think about it.**

**I wanted to finish this story so that I could concentrate on my other ones, and I think this one was AMAZING. Let me know what you think, and if I should write a sequel. **

**I hope you all loved this story as much as I have. Now read and enjoy. **

**Have a nice night/day everyone! Love you all for being so kind. Without you, my writing would be so boring. It's nice to have people who read/like/love the writing that I do. Especially since I want to be a writer one day. Also, I want to be an actress. Nothing with wanting to be a writer/actress right? ;)**

**Follow your dreams everyone!**

* * *

After a couple minutes of me taunting him about whether I was going to let him out or not, I finally let him out. I thought maybe he would be happy, but the scowl on his face told me otherwise. Just as I had untied the last of the ropes, he jumped up grabbing me by my shoulders. Instantly I flinched. "How the hell could you leave me tied there for this long! We could have already been out of here, but no. You had to be stubborn and not let me out." I thought he was going to hit me, but he let me go and walked into the bathroom running his hand through his hair. "Now we have to figure out how long we have before-"

Before he could finish his sentence, the door flung open and Alice walked in with her bodyguards. She started screaming as loud as she could. Alice stopped talking the moment she looked at my hands. I had cleaned off the blood, but the wounds were still bleeding. "How the hell did you get out?" She looked over at the chair where Jackson was sitting when she left. "Where the hell is Jackson?"

I nervously looked down when Jackson popped out of the bathroom punching and knocking out one of Alice's guards. As soon as her guard went down, the other one grabbed me and held a gun to my head. Jackson took one look at the guard and instantly turned around and he grabbed Alice by the neck and held her until she started turning red, then blue. "If you don't take that gun away from Lisa's head, I will choke Alice to death."

I was running through all of the defensive movements that Jackson had taught me while being here. Looking into Jacksons eyes, he gave me a small nod. At least, I think it was a nod. It was so small, I wasn't sure if it actually happened, but I decided to go with my gut. I slammed on his foot and then elbowed him in the gut. He backed up a little bit, but never let me go. I was getting frustrated. So I cocked my head to the side and gave Jackson a smirk. This was actually going to hurt both of the guys in the room. I swallowed and balled my hand into a fist and I swung down hitting him exactly where I planned. He dropped to his knees grabbing his privates. I ran to Jacksons side and just as I turned around to stand by his side, he let Alice go and she fell to the floor.

The guard who had grabbed me started to stand up, the pain had gone away. Jackson grabbed the gun from the guard he had knocked out. He aimed it at the guard who had grabbed me and shot him in the head. I jumped and screamed. His head was facing us. Seeing people die in front of me would probably never be something I would get used to. Ever. He took the gun and shot the other guard in his head. His head was facing the bathroom. I looked down at Alice, and she was starting to stir. Jackson pulled me closer to him and held me by his side.

Alice finally stood up and turned to face us. She looked down and saw that her guards were dead. "You killed them? You killed your co-workers?" She was definitely not happy.

Jackson smirked at her. "Anything for survival." He paused and stared at her for a moment. "Isn't that what we're taught when we're training Alice? Do anything to survive." He chuckled. "That's what I did. I _had_ to do what I did. Just to survive."

Her eyes narrowed and she put her eyes on me. "You will pay for this. Do you hear me? Lisa, you will be the one to pay for this. Not him. I will get you back, one way or another." She took a step closer to me. "Either by killing him, or someone else you love!"

I laughed openly. "There is no one else to kill. I have no one else!"

Taking another step closer, she whispered, "Your mother."

I turned to Jackson and laughed. "My mom and I barely talk. She only talks to me when someone dies, or when she needs something."

Alice let out a growl and started to run at me. All of a sudden she stopped and fell to the ground. Her head was on the ground pointing to the wall. Blood pooled around her. I looked at Jackson with wide eyes. "Did you just shoot her?"

It was such a stupid question when the answer was obviously yes. I was standing right there when it happened. Jackson pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes. "Yes, Leese. I shot her. If I hadn't, you could be dead right now."

"I could have taken her! You know I could have."

Jackson nodded and stared at me. "I know you could have, but I wasn't taking any chances."

I remembered back to when he said we could never be. Closing my eyes, I started talking to him. I couldn't look at him when the answer could have been so devastating to me. "Why did you save me when you don't want to be with me?"

I heard him sigh and then he kissed me. "I never said I didn't want to be with you. I said we couldn't be together. My lifestyle is not suitable for you."

Opening my eyes, I stared into his. There was something he was hiding from me. Something that I couldn't figure out. "What are you hiding from me?"

I was hoping he would tell me, but I highly doubted it. Jackson was a man of mystery, and he liked to keep it that way. When I saw him shake his head no, I knew he wasn't going to tell me. That was until he sighed again. "I'm not hiding anything, I just haven't told you it yet."

I put my hand on my hip. "That's the same thing as hiding it from me."

Jackson grabbed me and kissed me. Once we finished kissing, he grabbed my hands. "I just haven't told you that I-" He stopped for a moment and pulled me in. "I love you." He dragged his hand through his hair again. Jackson was acting like a teenage boy about to be rejected, and he knew that I would never reject him. He knew that I loved him. "Okay? Is that okay with you?"

Slowly a smile crossed my lips and I somehow knew that everything would okay. "Of course it's okay. I've already told you that I love you."

He smiled that genuine smile that I saw in the line at airport for the first time. Grabbing my right hand, he turned around and started walking out of the room. "Let's get out of here."

There was no place else I wanted to be on this earth than with him. When I looked back at the bodies on the floor, I could have sworn that Alice's head had moved. The last I remembered, it was facing the wall, and now it was facing us. I thought nothing of it, and I followed him out of the building and hoped against hope that we could live a happily ever after.


End file.
